Elegant Old Men
Warren Johnson — When our son Michael was very young, he had a very old friend. Everyone called his old friend Baba Levi. Not mister, not sir, but Baba. Baba is Persian [...]
Creative Nonfiction
The Ear is Quicker than the Eye: A Hospital Story
Warren R. Johnson — Having lived in Germany for many years, I’ve had the opportunity to get acquainted with hospitals from Landstuhl, the military’s [...]
Getting Along with MS
Warren R. Johnson — When you are really fast asleep, you can actually jog in your dreams. If you stumble, you regain your balance in an instant; if you fall, you are [...]
Icarus Redux
DeWitt Clinton — I still live in Shorewood, Wisconsin, not Sherwood, for there’s nothing foresty or Shakespearian about this tiny little add-on to Metro Milwaukee. [...]
The Lady of Pas a Grille
Norma Gay Prewett — I had not noticed her the day before, but my husband said he had. A pudgy, blousy blonde, she perched on the cafe stool at the Seahorse, one of the [...]
Ruth is 86
Judy Moore Hug — My mother is in the kitchen. She is trimming the stems off a dozen pink roses, a little past their prime. As she trims each stem, I notice the bruise [...]
The Sheriff of the Park
Les Guliasi — Point Isabel is the largest off-leash dog park in the country. The two sections of the 53 acre park are divided by Hoffman channel and connected by a [...]
Witnessing the End of a Family Farm: Twenty-Five Ways to Say Goodbye
Richard Quinney — I am a witness to the ending of a family farm in Wisconsin. This is the farm that was started in 1868 by my great-grandparents and farmed by the [...]
Saphire is Not a Dog
Jeff Berger — Saphire is my collie. For 33 years I have owned collies. Or to be more precise, collies have owned me. My collies have owned a house with a large [...]
My Mom, Baseball, and Me
Mark Richardson — I came to baseball, or baseball came to me, as a very young boy. My dad was never much of a baseball fan, at least until he was in his 60s and he [...]
Trouble
DeWitt Clinton — I’m having trouble remembering anything lately. Sure I know I’m here where you are too, wondering about what’s next, but who isn’t? I’ve had [...]
The Summer of Becoming Quasimodo
Bill Powell — My wife and I recently discussed Pearl Buck’s classic novel The Good Earth and tried to recollect whether, and when, we might have read it as children. [...]
Dining with the Colonel – No. 39
Charles Cottle — Snow was falling and I was tired. I was returning home to Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin after a day of teaching at the university. It was 5:30 in the [...]
Twenty-five Selfies in the Raphael Room
David Gillespie — It was Monday, June 20. This year. Celebrating a milestone wedding anniversary, we were in Rome. This would be a day for touring the Vatican under the [...]
A Quiet Man
Bill Powell — After seven decades of my life, I have experienced, learned, and remembered many things—among them, that people touch our lives by being totally [...]
Lost But Not Lost
DeWitt Clinton — I really wasn’t lost. I was just looking for where I wanted to go, or wanted to end up. Now that I’m back where I started, I know I can get to [...]
