My memoir, City of Crows, is forthcoming from Running Wild Press in 2024. Inpatient readers can check out this chapter from the book in Nowhere Magazine. https://nowheremag.com/2018/09/inside-the-caldera/
Fatherhood
No Mow May
Last week I purchased a new lawnmower at my son’s behest. The lithium battery-powered mower I had been using finally crapped out for good. I should have returned it the day I bought it because it never was worth a damn. It had some safety feature that killed the engine if you went over the … Continue reading No Mow May
The Man of the House
My youngest son and I have a joke we share. Before I leave for work, I tell him he is the man of the house while I am gone. This started last spring when his kindergarten class was quarantined and his older brother still got to go to school. Now I say he’s the man … Continue reading The Man of the House
Hoop Medicine
My youngest son splashes in the lake with his mother as I anxiously pan the beach for Miles. At last, I feel a momentary pang of love as I recognize him among the frolicking, half-clad children. He is bent over, digging a hole in the sand with a shovel. Wait. I take a step closer … Continue reading Hoop Medicine
Trash Fishing
We celebrated my 49th birthday by dining at Al’s Breakfast in the Dinkytown neighborhood of Minneapolis. My wife and kids feasted on pancakes while I enjoyed bacon and eggs with what might have been the most scrumptious wheat toast I’ve ever consumed. Amazingly, this hole-in-the-wall establishment has been in business since 1950. It has no … Continue reading Trash Fishing
Cawing into the Abyss
Crows assemble at this U of M tower like children around a birthday cake, hoping for the killing to begin so they can have lunch. You are fools they say, everyone is black until you pick our feathers. Each December they fill the sky along the river in flocks too numerous to count. Such gatherings … Continue reading Cawing into the Abyss
Graffiti Bridge
I decided to put the words and the worries aside and just take some pictures. The suburbanites hurtling over us in their cars had no idea about the art and the wonder below. I could leave the city, put myself deeper in debt and find a nice spot by some lake. I might catch bigger … Continue reading Graffiti Bridge
Roswell City Limits
My father died on February 25th, 2012. He was 67 years old. He had made an appointment to see a doctor that day, but the pain got to be too much and he ended up dialing 911. He had a perforated stomach that led to septicemia which is a bacterial infection of the blood. He … Continue reading Roswell City Limits
Seven Manifestations of God: a Photo Essay
I haven't read the Bible in decades, nor do I attend church. I don't pray in any formal sense. Yet, I regard myself as a spiritual person. If I were to label my beliefs, I would say I am a naturalistic pantheist--someone who rejoices in the beauty of the natural world, someone who sees God, … Continue reading Seven Manifestations of God: a Photo Essay
A Map of Memory
A map is formed with memory. The places you’ve gone and the things you’ve done. Say a mental image of you fishing with your father when you pass a spot on a lake. Or you might think of your daughter when she was small as you drive by a deserted playground where you, long … Continue reading A Map of Memory
Crow City 