OTTO THE BOXER DOG collapsed in the garden yesterday and was taken to the small animal hospital, where he lived briefly, long enough for me to get there and say goodbye. He passed away peacefully in my dear friend Randy’s arms around 1:30 P.M. His age is unknown, since he/… Read full post »

Working for the Man

In March of 1993, James Perry murdered Mildred Horn, her eight-year-old quadriplegic son, and the son’s nurse. With a $2 million settlement his son had received for his injuries at stake, Horn’s ex-husband hired Perry to do the hit. Among Perry’s possessions was… Read full post »

 

          --for D. A.

 

"Sit down," you say,

"Take off your hat."

It startles me,

your mentioning a hat.

"What hat? I never wear a hat."

And yet you seem to see it,

plain as day.

 

What is it, this alleged hat?

Is it a Carmen Miranda… Read full post »

I've had my eye on some recent reviews of "bad mommy" books, parent memoirs that are either funny and affirming or disturbing and dangerous, depending on your point of view. I'm thinking specifically of two reviewers' columns: Rebecca Traister's The Worst Parents in the World  and… Read full post »

 

This is a picture of my old boyfriend’s car, a car he spent hours and hours rebuilding, sanding, painting, and fretting over instead of paying attention to me. It's a Lola T70 Spyder. Designed to go from zero to 100 in under six seconds, the T70 raced on the Can-Am sports… Read full post »

 

 

The release of Manson's prison photo rekindled interest in slayings of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and six others in a two-night rampage that terrorized the city of Los Angeles in August 1969. Yesterday, his last hideout, the Barker Ranch in Death Valley, burned to the ground.

&n/…

Read full post »

  

            That part of the country is, within itself,

            as unpoetical as any spot of the earth;

            b/… Read full post »

OE Sheepdog’s meme “Two Truths and a Lie,” based on the ice breaker of  the same name, looked like great OS fun. And it was. Thank you--you dog, you! It was also a great example of you never know what’s under the surface until you scratch the surface.

I was… Read full post »

My two teenage children have ADHD, and both have been on stimulant medication from a very young age--first grade and kindergarten, respectively. So it got my attention when I saw headlines suggesting that long-term medication doesn't work and in fact stunts children's growth.

The origin of… Read full post »

Tom Pantera mentioned the lame drug education efforts of the 70s in his very worthwhile and serious post Drug Testing Less Vital Than Drug Talking.

I couldn't resist posting this absurd drug education filmstrip, enhanced with comic voice-over.

I actually remember sitting through stuff just… Read full post »

 

My Red Wings 

"Too wet to plow, too windy to haul rocks," as we like to say in the Midwest, every chance we get. But today it's true, so here I am instead of out there, where I'd rather be.  

I've got it bad--the dirt lust. When I was barely big… Read full post »

 

  "for my mom, because it has everything she likes," by my daughter

This post completes a sequence that began with this post. If you haven’t been following this story, reading Why I Wrote the Bipolar Child Story will give you the context.

 ***

I'D THREATENED to… Read full post »

Windowed, white and shuttered, on a street
with other houses, mowers’ distant drone,
sharp smell of cut grass, and the feel of home.
Or city walk-up, stopping, out of breath,
bags heavy with our plans for sharing food,
There’s safety as the sirens wind away.
Squeezed in a cot or backsea… Read full post »

 

 "disloyal," by my daughter

LAST MONTH, I posted a story about what it’s like living with my bipolar child. I’m mostly a poet, and I tend to think in images and metaphors—so it was an extended metaphor about a puppy:

It's like having this beautiful puppy. And… Read full post »

 

 

   The River Goes

 

   its roundabout way

   as the farmer's tractor

   slips away

   to nothing

   in the wake

   of blue-green

   beanfield

   which curves

&… Read full post »

As the parent of two children adopted at birth and now ages 15 and 19, I am uniquely qualified to answer the question, Is child behavior innate or learned? I can assure you, THERE’S NOT A SPECK OF LEARNING IN IT. 

It’s genetics all the way.

EXAMPLE #1: THE BOY

1. He… Read full post »

 In 1964, my my father took his sabbatical at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. I was in the sixth grade; my brother, the ninth.  

Harry Harlow ran the primate lab in the psychology department at that time, as he had since 1956. Harlow is perhaps best known for a series… Read full post »

Photocollage by my talented bipolar child.

It's like having this beautiful puppy. And sometimes it's great being with the puppy. It climbs up  into your lap, and you stroke its soft fur. It looks at you, and you can see it loves you. It even says, "I love you." And… Read full post »

 

It's the fifth grade.
The white-socked guys from the AV squad
have pulled the movie screen down
over the world map
and adjusted the knobs
on the ancient machine.

Miss Goldberg turns out the lights.
There is the shuffle of fifth-grade feet
and the lid creaking closed
on someone's desk.

Then a whi… Read full post »

Thanks in advance for reading. Extra points if you can tell who the Great Poet is.

The auditorium on the cold campus was full, but the Great Poet made us wait. When he finally made his entrance, he was wearing a black cape with a red lining, which he opened with a…

Read full post »