Birthdays can be heart breaking. Especially when watching children, unskilled in courteousness, open clothes they don’t like. You learn to smile through the ‘Groovy Chick’ t-shirts that you had graduated…

The rumble of the car’s wheels on a fast road. The muted voice of Gerry Rafferty emanating from the speakers in the front, though at that age I wouldn’t have…

“I don’t want to go to school today!” My 3-year-old affixes herself to my leg, all wide eyes and downturned mouth, the hair at the back of her head snarled…

‘Human beings will be happier, not when they cure cancer or get to Mars, but when they find ways to inhabit primitive communities again.’ Kurt Vonnegut * Sixteen miles west…

Missing the sign for Rosal, we drove far up the road on the wrong side of the River Naver before we turned and retraced our journey back over the bridge…

I find my daughter under things. Curled asleep cat-like under the mattress. Humming in the linen box with the lid closed. Sitting cross-legged beneath a nest of coats in my…

A bottle of holy water from Lourdes sat on the floor of the cloakroom, just inside the door, untouched by anyone except Ma who used it to refill the tiny…

I wake in my mosquito net cage. The morning din has begun: disco music blasting from the kiosk across the street, motors roaring, the berserk cries of the fighting cocks…

for E.L.H. This is a letter. Like most letters, it is for a recipient we all call you. Like most senders hope, I want the recipient to smile. Smile wide:…

“Where should we start?” I ask. “Maybe at either end,” shrugs the nurse. We glance at each other – my love and I – and nod in agreement. She takes…

Westbound on the Mass Pike, with Cheryl and friends of ancient standing, I’m destined for a vacation at a woodsy cottage in the Catskills. It will be an indulgent luxury,…

Jesus was drinking wine when the guests crashed onto the dinner table. Creatures the size of cats with small ears, pointy noses, and turquoise hair covering their bodies scurried around…