The poetry reading had been going well. This annual Philly event drew a sizable crowd, but this year—for unexplained reasons—the hall was jammed. Crammed in the third row, at the break I stood to stretch and look around. McQuitty, one of our greatest local poets, was sitting at the end of the last row. I […]
He woke up with a painful crick in his neck from where he had fallen asleep on the sofa. The bottle of whiskey that he had been drinking to celebrate his success of the night before had fallen from his hand while he slept and rolled across the carpet, its contents spilling out and soaking […]
You’re not a loser until you quit trying, Coach thought to himself, watching as his players pissed and moaned their way to another loss. They seemed half asleep, committing lazy turnovers on offense and arguing with one another instead of hustling back on defense. Thirty years coaching high school basketball and he couldn’t remember a […]
At a stuffy banquet honoring soldiers who fought the Great War, a man approached Mollie and whispered in her ear. “Casualties, thousands needing immediate treatment. Transporting them to an old monastery. Working crazy, all hours. Death, over and over.” His head drooped low. “Too many dying. We loaded soldiers on stretchers, train cars to makeshift […]