Coloma, Wisconsin 1978 There is not much left to do today. This morning we were replacing fence posts. Bob and I have pulled stumps all afternoon, he driving the tractor,…
Bamboo Shoots Submission for Year of the Pig
A Helpful Kind
He’s always thinking about other people, more particularly, what he can do for this family. Barbeque perhaps, bake some muffins, rake leaves, wash car, babysit, give lychee, mangoes, avocados. Every…
Bamboo Shoots Submission for Year of the Pig
The Brakes
The Brakes Near seven decades of run on, sentenced to a worn and hazy neatly there you go, so you’ve slowed, you slowly, give up to the end of indecision…
Bamboo Shoots Submission for Year of the Pig
What Lab School Jr. Rainbows Do
I’m eating dinner in Liliha Pizza hut last night. A guy, younger, comes in. I call out to him. I haven’t seen him in years. We say hello, he sits….
Bamboo Shoots Submission for Year of the Pig
Coffee, not Coffee
I’d just been in Shanghai a month earlier. There, most people know what decaffeinated coffee is. Here in Seoul, fewer seem to understand what it is, and those that do,…
Bamboo Shoots Submission for Year of the Pig
Finding the funny of it
“Eventually, everything will be funny.” We were eating breakfast in the Palmer House. “It’s no gimme, it won’t just happen.” I’d lost my appetite. “It takes work. Listen to funny…
Bamboo Shoots Submission for Year of the Pig
The Why of Weekends
“I think we’ll postpone the exam. Instead of Friday, we’ll have it Monday.” There was a general collective groan. “That way you’ll have the weekend to study.” More groaning. Contrary…
Bamboo Shoots Submission for Year of the Pig
Relatives
Relatives On this, my first trip to Korea, I thought I’d seen all of my relatives except one. Then yesterday, eating dinner in Busan, although it was very dark –…
Bamboo Shoots Submission for Year of the Pig
Madison Sleepwalk
I’m holding a candle. When I open the door, although there’s no breeze, it begins to flutter, casting odd shadows on the wall as I descend the stairs to the…
Bamboo Shoots Submission for Year of the Pig
The Oldest Hotel in Waikiki
I’ve just come from listening to Robert Cazimero do a show at the Blue Note nightclub. I’m sitting at the Moana Hotel’s Beach Bar, checking email on my phone. At…