If you deliver mail for a living you really get to hate dogs. They bark at you all day. After a while it's like someone is driving a nail into your frontal lobes. Bark, bark, bark! They go crazy. Little ones, big ones, it doesn't matter. Mail slots are the worst. The duct work acts … Continue reading Dog Trouble
Good Protein–Edible Thoughts on the Bugs that Bug Us
The elementary school sent out an alert about Japanese beetles destroying the newly planted fruit orchard. As if Pearl Harbor hadn’t been enough! Finding myself strangely transfixed by the whiteness of the ceiling overhead, my wife read me the dire news as I sipped my Folgers coffee. My son’s second-grade class had planted Zestars—an early-ripening … Continue reading Good Protein–Edible Thoughts on the Bugs that Bug Us
Mrs. Brody’s Nightstand
I used to play with another boy named Jason Brody who lived not far from me in the trailer park. His mother was usually away at work when I came over. I think she was a nurse. Mrs. Brody had a boyfriend named Kenny who seemed strange to me because he was always smiling. The … Continue reading Mrs. Brody’s Nightstand
The Obituary of Jeremy Allen Mathews
I once took a voyeuristic pleasure in reading the newspaper obituaries on Sunday mornings. My wife asks me pointedly on occasion if I still read the paper because she wants to cancel the subscription. The truth is I barely glance at it anymore. I drink my coffee as rapidly as possible to fend off the … Continue reading The Obituary of Jeremy Allen Mathews
The Skinny Kid
My father taught me how to fight when I was so young that I probably would have had trouble beating up a chicken. He started by showing me the proper way to make a fist. I was never sure who I was supposed to be fighting or what sort of brawls, if any, my … Continue reading The Skinny Kid
Devil Birds
Winter is a grim time for any mailman, but so long as the temperature is above zero and the wind isn't blowing too strong, it isn't that bad. My job was a comfort to me, the dull uniformity of it. At work, at least I knew what to expect. I delighted in hearing coworkers endlessly … Continue reading Devil Birds
Black Brains
The first person I ever knew with cancer was my grandmother. It killed her when I was about fifteen. Growing up, we drove to Watertown, South Dakota and visited my father's parents once or twice a year for the holidays. My grandfather had been a gunner in the Army Air Corp in World War II. … Continue reading Black Brains
The White Whale of Privilege
In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick (Viking Penguin 2000) is an epic adventure of men battling nature to stay alive. The Essex disaster was the real-life inspiration for Herman Melville’s immortal classic, Moby Dick. The survivors of the Essex--a Nantucket whaling vessel that sank after being intentionally … Continue reading The White Whale of Privilege
Hello, Mailbox
Early on in my postal career I had this little apartment building on my route with mostly Somalis living in it. A little boy with a round mischievous face began coming out to watch me put the letters in the boxes. "Hello, mailbox!" he would say to me. This got to be his little joke. … Continue reading Hello, Mailbox
Crows
My brother gave me an album of photographs and important papers that my father left behind. I keep it out of sight in the basement. But sometimes, late at night, when the rest of my family is asleep, I drink too much wine and think about the past.
My father sits on a stool in blue jeans with a coffee mug held on his thigh. His back is straight as he smiles broadly for the camera. He is barrel-chested and powerful. His hair and beard are dark. He wears a khaki military shirt and cap without insignia. He looks like Fidel Castro.
He smiles wryly at me from another photograph, his senior portrait. He is nattily attired in a suit and tie. It shocks me to see how much we look alike. He is thin and handsome. 
Alcohol and age have yet to thicken his features. His dark eyes convey…
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