Good morning, my beautiful migrator. I see your orange wings through your black chrysalis shell. Are you ready to fly today? In the nursery in a mesh butterfly crate, your friends are eclosing from their chrysalises and getting ready to fly.  They were the last to join the nursery and they’ll be the last to […]

They disagreed about most everything. The right food to feed a baby. The best card game. How much a woman ought to weigh and whether or not she should wear a whalebone corset and stockings even in August heat. Whether she should sit by the pool at the country club or work in the garden […]

Will I always remember your laughter? Will I remember the dancing? Will you visit in dreams?       We met in a motorcycle shop. I was in love, but you were afraid. We grilled sandwiches, Drank wine, and smoked Mexican pot. Your resistance vanished like smoke in the wind. I was 22 and you […]

“I want to hear Anthony play music, too,” I say to my son David who is visiting from North Carolina. Anthony is his younger brother who used to dj in CA but now lives a few miles from me. We sit outside at Atwater Winery enjoying the view and eating Mexican food from La Monarka’s […]

“It’s July 19. Where have you been? Just a few years ago, I saw your ancestors by the beginning of June.” Don’t scold me, he says, hiding his hind black and orange wings behind a milkweed leaf. I’m doing my best. There was drought in Mexico all winter and few flowers survived. Without pollen, many […]

In a dream: I stand at tall windows overlooking a big city. I’m here to sign a publishing agreement about my butterfly book. Two women and I laugh with delight as we imagine what might be. A man in a business suit joins us carrying a shallow bowl of thick black ink. He carefully places […]