The cartoon presidency
The villain has taken over the US government and is raking in all the goodies.
I know you’re old, but what am I
Growing old is in many ways much like having your first baby–no one can truly appreciate the overwhelming, all-consuming novelty of it until it’s happening. Meet the deep end. Sink or swim.
Wishful Thinking
Wake me when it’s over \ When sunlight seeps through the curtains and the room begins to lighten
On the Third of July
What does Independence Day mean when we are experiencing direct parallels to grievances laid out in the Declaration of Independence?
When the safety net is gone, and homelessness is criminalized
Image: Дворецкая Таня-stock.adobe.com On June 28, 2024, the United States Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Grants Pass v. Johnson that cities could prohibit camping and sleeping in public places, that such laws didn’t rise to the level of cruel and unusual punishment–even when there is no available shelter. In short: …
When a writer has no bylines
You don’t think about it when you’re employed as a communications officer, you’re just following best practices by keeping yourself out of the story. But then comes the day when you need to put together a portfolio, and you find that you have no bylined or credited work for the …
When a flag includes all
On Nov. 6, 2020, I unpackaged a brand new American flag and put it out to fly, for the first time in four years. It was my signal to the world that the possibility of “America” survives. The 2020 election is still officially undecided, but as they have for decades, …
Something from nothing
For years the odd pieces of copper pipe, discarded in some re-piping project, leaned against the boathouse wall. For years I looked at them and tried to visualize what they could be. I knew they had something else in them, but what it was escaped me. For some reason I …
When a bird signals climate change
A movement in the backyard caught my eye, a bird with feathers that looked blue and lavender. I froze, wanting to scramble across the room for my camera with the zoom lens, but not wanting to miss it. It’s rare that we in the Puget Sound area see blue birds. …
Transformations
In the cotton ball cocoon of morning fog I go out onto the beach, seeking raw material. The languid tide recedes, exposing the rocky shore, and even in the soft light, agates and bits of beach glass glow. Fog muffles the vision, but seems to amplify the sounds. From far …