The Beldam Old Jill’s medicinal herbs cured many ailments Doctor Hale couldn’t. He accused her of witchcraft. One Sunday Hale dropped dead in the meeting house. Goodie Hagar maintained she had seen Jill the day before, pointing her finger at him and muttering. Hagar was a malicious gossip, but the town believed her. Men with
For John “You gotta accen-tuate the positive, E-liminate the negative. And latch on To the affirmative- Don’t mess with Mister In-Between! You gotta spread joy up to the maximum, Bring gloom down to the minimum, And have faith, or pandemonium’s Liable to walk upon the scene. -Johnny Mercer It was one of my dear friend
First Footing In Scotland, tradition has it that the first person to cross your threshold on Hogmanay (New Year’s Day) is a harbinger of good fortune for the rest to the year. He or she should be welcomed in, given a good nip of whiskey, some shortbread, and a lump of coal to represent a
After The Sleet Storm Ice sheathes the branches Of the hemlocks. My nostrils Have frozen tight shut.
To know how little You remember, move backward Until you forget.
The Journey Of The Magi A cold coming we had of it. Just the worst time of the year For a journey, and such a long journey: The ways deep and the weather sharp. The very dead of winter. And the camels galled, sorefooted, refractory, Lying down in the melting snow. There were times we
Inexorably The cosmos moves toward death. Nothing will be left.
A FABLE Three old hens lived in the yard of a tender-hearted farmer named Nelly. The hens were at the end of their egg-laying days, but Nelly hated slaughtering her chickens even when they had outlived their usefulness, and the three hens had been with her for a long time. She’d grown rather fond of
Snowy Silence Snow thick on the ground No sound comes from the forest Are the birds alive?