Water in the Wilderness

excerpt

Morley broke into Tyne’s thoughts. “Everyone seemed happy about the baby. Who do think was the most excited?”
Tyne laughed. “You mean apart from our two mothers, and Aunt Millie? Well, I think Jeremy came in a close second. He can’t believe he’s going to be an uncle. Did you hear him ask what names we’ve picked out?”
“No, did he? What did you tell him?”
“That if it’s a girl, we’ll name her after him. That’s when he threatened to throw his plum pudding at me.”
“Mean sister,” Morley said with a grin. He brought the car to a stop by the veranda, and opened his door to be greeted by an excited Sparky. “Whoa there, girl, don’t bowl me over.” He bent to pat the dog’s head, then helped Tyne over the snowy path to the flight of steps leading to the back door.
“You go on in, honey. You must be exhausted, and you have to leave for work early. I’ll just do a last check in the barn. Won’t be long.”
Tyne watched him go, Sparky at his side. She knew that before he came back to the house, he would make sure the dog had a good bed of straw in a cozy spot in the barn.
As she walked through the house to hang her coat in the front hall closet, Tyne couldn’t help smiling over Morley’s concern for her. Ever since they had found out about the pregnancy, he had been overly solicitous. It made her impatient at times, but secretly she reveled in the attention.
In their bedroom she removed her dress, hung it in the wardrobe, then put on her comfy new housecoat – a Christmas gift from Morley. She sighed contentedly as she picked up her hairbrush from the dresser, and began to brush her hair. Morley was right, she did feel weary. But it had been a good day. If it had not been for recurring worries over Rachael and Bobby, it would have been a perfect day. She knew Morley was thinking of them, too, because occasionally she had seen a shadow pass over his face that a moment before had been animated and jolly.
What were they doing now? Were they sound asleep? And did Bobby take the dump truck to bed with him?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/192676319X

The Unquiet Land

excerpt

“It’s probably fanciful,” Clifford began, “but I think the soul lies in that shadowy region between the brain and the mind, that dark transition between the material and the immaterial, an area we may perhaps never fathom.”
“Why must the soul be in the head?” Sweeney asked, looking for an opening that might admit some light into a conversation that he thought had become too opaque.
“Where else would you put it?” Finn wanted to know. “In your belly? In your knee-caps?”
“Maybe it’s hanging down between your legs,” said Slattery and he burst into uproarious laughter.
The unexpectedness of Slattery’s remark struck Finn as the funniest thing he had heard in a long time. He thumped the table and exploded into an uncontrollable fit of laughing. Sweeney joined in. So did Clifford. Even Michael woke up and grinned without knowing what he was grinning at. Padraig alone was not amused. He ascribed the laughter more to Finn’s wine than to Slattery’s words.
Tears began to roll down Finn’s wrinkled cheeks. “What a cod you are, Slattery,” he said, trying to catch his breath. “Maybe it’s hanging…” And again he yielded to a fit of laughing so loud it made the dirty plates and bowls and smeared wine glasses shake on the table. For five or ten minutes the laughter rose and subsided like billows on the sea. Then calm.
“What about women then?” Sweeney asked.
“Women have no souls,” Finn declared. “They have to get theirs from a man. That’s why virgins go to hell.”
“Except the Virgin Mary,” Slattery pointed out.
“The Virgin Mary wasn’t a virgin,” Finn contradicted. “If old Joseph couldn’t give it to her—and I doubt if he could—God himself saw she didn’t go without. It’s the only thing I admire your God for, Padraig. It shows he was human.”
A brief pause. Finn and Sweeney wiped laughter’s tears from their cheeks. Padraig and Clifford drained the wine out of their glasses. Michael stood up and brushed crumbs from his lap to the floor. He was a big man, tall almost as Ignatius Sweeney but twice his width. Like Finn MacLir, Michael wore grey woollen trousers and a grey-striped, white shirt without a collar. The sleeves were rolled up above the elbow, showing off his hefty, muscular arms.
“I’m going up to the cottage, Finn,” he said. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763203

Medusa

Starbucks
The laptop is on the table
steamy non-fat latte
brings to your mind inspiration
of your young lover who comes
to flood your imagination
and the poem rises
from the sweetness of the coffee
to swirl over the coffee table
as if you hit the keys of a piano
as if directing a new crescendo
over your lover’s fiery body
exquisite paean
that dominates your verses
and you imagine honey dripping
from her lips that
you dream to taste soon

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763769