THE THORN AND THE ROSE: A Fairy Tale

Once upon a time, there was a queen who lived in a large castle. At one time the castle had been very prosperous, but had long since fallen on hard times so that the queen was quite poor. Even so the queen was...


GLEANING CORN

Gleaning corn could just as easily have been titled Cold. My brothers, my sister, and I gleaned corn every Saturday and Sunday for several weeks one winter when I was in the second grade. We threw the corn in a wagon pulled by two horses, Bill and Nancy. The wagon wheels were...


FROZEN ASSETS

He was posed with a dilemma. Should he go to the trouble of dressing for a chore that would only last a few seconds, or should he just quickly unplug the cord and tough the bitter cold in his nakedness?


THE SUMMER MY BROTHER AND I FOUGHT THE BUMBLE BEES.

Some men mark their rite of passage from innocence to the realities of a hostile world by a singular event. I mark mine by the summer my brother Bill and I fought the bumblebees. I was six; my brother was five.