Fistful of pennies and candy in wrappers, Bobbing for apples, teeth snap and they scamper, “BOO” stenciled pillow case expecting something, These are my favorite Halloween things… Ghost whispers silenced…
Bamboo Shoots Submission for Year of the Rooster
Reflections
I turned down College Walk. The air sat thick, gooey. Termites swarmed the streetlights. The canal smelled like dead fish, was lined with plastic bottles. Stopping, I leaned over the…
Bamboo Shoots Submission for Year of the Rooster
Candy
Alfred get one eraser dat smell like candy. Alfred always smelling um. Not like you smell one flower but stick um up your nose kine. Uji. I sit next to…
Bamboo Shoots Submission for Year of the Rooster
Waiting
Waiting For the dancer who loved her, she heard a different beat. One that made her heart bang against her chest walls. He said, “I am taken with you.” And…
Bamboo Shoots Submission for Year of the Rooster
Fire Girl
She was a busy mother of seven–the youngest barely out of diapers–and attentive wife to her high school sweetheart, a delivery driver for Love’s Bakery in Honolulu. Multiple distractions kept…
Bamboo Shoots Submission for Year of the Rooster
Labor Day Lunch
Labor Day supposed to be one holiday. But Daddy tink dats da last chance fo make me and Russo do work before school start. Aftah dat, we can tell we…
Bamboo Shoots Submission for Year of the Rooster
Glad Tidings
I wanted to say I’m doing ok and everything’s good but there’s no sense in that, so I’ll just tell you ’bout Lizzie’s birthday party the other day. She wore…
Bamboo Shoots Submission for Year of the Rooster
To Live Too Long
My father, proudest in his life for serving his country in World War Two, lived his last three years in a nursing home, confined to bed, urinating and having bowel…
Bamboo Shoots Submission for Year of the Rooster
UNION DUES BLUES
The summer of 1957 I worked at Dick’s Men’s Shop and Bremerton Locker Club for $1.00 per. “Watch out for the union man,” Dick warned. “He’ll take your money’n go.”…
Bamboo Shoots Submission for Year of the Rooster
Another Dead Poet’s Society
Another Dead Poet’s Society Like that secret Valentine passed to the red headed girl who sat in the back of the class, carelessly opened it and laughed and passed it…