On a Zoom get-together recently, my dear buddy Miryam was not just miserable because she had Covid (like that’s not enough, amiright?), but also because she’d been so careful. Miryam — unlike someone who will remain nameless— didn’t go out. She had her groceries delivered and then wiped them down…

Anyone who thinks junkies are lazy didn’t know T.J. and Barb. They were up at 4 am every blessed day, 24/7/365, to be first in line at the methadone clinic. This would stave off the dope sickness long enough for them to start the rounds of the easy touch doctors…

Throughout my childhood, every Saturday was cleaning day. While it certainly would have been easier for Mom to vacuum, dust, mop, and generally straighten the place up herself she was grimly determined to teach her four daughters how to keep a clean house. It was a weekly fight with her…

Last night, I hesitated to take my sushi into the living room before coming back to the kitchen to get the soy sauce and salad. Then I remembered. No cat. For the first time in nearly twenty years, this apartment is catless and it is weird.

My partner, the guy…

George Eppley, formerly a Catholic priest, and later married to my long-time writing mentor, Anita Dixon Eppley, who had once been a Catholic nun — now there’s a love story for the ages — used to tell Anita that her mentee (me) was going to win a Pulitzer.

Keep in…

We knew the day was coming but tried to convince ourselves this wasn’t that day.

It was.

For the first time ever I didn’t have to wrestle her into the cat carrier. She wasn’t happy about it but all the fight was gone. Two deep yowls and silence.

We took…

After the first hawk scared the bejesus out of my happy little flock of mourning doves I wondered — and friends suggested — that I was essentially creating a trap by putting seed out on the fire escape during the winter.

My partner urgently summoned me from the kitchen this…

Here you are, you freshly minted new, bright-eyed Writers, you! I can almost hear the gears whirring as you stretch your arms, crack the joints in your fingers, and get ready to show the rest of us how it’s done. Well, Cupcake, lay it on us. Give us your best.

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