‘I was never pretty enough’
“I was never pretty enough. I was never thin enough. I was never good enough. I was never smart enough.” The cold wind blows around the parked cars and down [...]
Read More →
Posted October 21, 2015in Joe's Neighborhood
Posted October 14, 2015in Joe's Neighborhood
We were here
“Kilroy was here.” It’s simple enough, a slogan that accompanies a crude drawing of a bald head and eight fingers looking over a wall. Whatever its actual origin, it was [...]
Read More →
Posted October 07, 2015in Featured Story, Joe's Neighborhood
Choices
Rain and cold and dark were all that awaited the women and children riding the late night bus when they were ordered off into the rain and cold and dark. [...]
Read More →
Posted September 30, 2015in Joe's Neighborhood
Room at the table
If you’re all the way to the mermaid tank at the Des Moines Renaissance Faire, you’ve gone too far. This is understandable, because you were probably distracted and beguiled by [...]
Read More →
Posted September 23, 2015in Joe's Neighborhood
A rack of clothes
“I don’t have any trinkets under the counter,” the man says as he looks at me, cheekbones smiling, eyes soft, freckles splattered across his face. “I only have service.” He [...]
Read More →
Posted September 16, 2015in Joe's Neighborhood
Barn stories
“Do you know how many stories are in these old barns?” I shake my head no. “Well, the frost comes into the barn, and everything that happens that winter freezes [...]
Read More →
Posted September 09, 2015in Joe's Neighborhood
A wasted day avoided
“I’ve had a good run on this kidney, but it’s about up.” Really? Who says that kind of thing? The school building lies low in the afternoon shadow of the [...]
Read More →
Posted September 02, 2015in Joe's Neighborhood
Dressed for success
A suburban Garden of Eden exists south of University Avenue in West Des Moines. Law offices, corporate buildings and restaurants are all set within wide manicured green spaces with flowers [...]
Read More →
Posted August 26, 2015in Joe's Neighborhood
The cow days of August
Wet with dew in the morning, dry and dusty by noon, the August grass is course and thin and dying. Even before each day gets too far along, the heat [...]
Read More →
Posted August 19, 2015in Joe's Neighborhood
The death of a doctor
Children should not die before their parents. Parents should not die before their grandparents. And husbands should die long before their wives. This is not complicated, right? There is an order [...]
Read More →
