Red's Wrap
Happiness. It's relative.
Tag: death
Beautiful Boy
I read the news of my nephew’s death on Facebook. I knew it was coming but I didn’t in the way that anyone older finds it so hard to believe that a younger person would die first. We think dying will be linear and… Continue Reading “Beautiful Boy”
Graveside
We sat in folding chairs My father who had forgotten me My forgiven self next to him The minister closing her Bible Looking at us, waiting with us Earth, lush and dark and waiting Loamy, asking to be held Then soft tapping on my… Continue Reading “Graveside”
The End of Mean Charlie
It took months before I could believe it. The man across the street had died. I should have figured it out the first morning Charlie didn’t come walking down his driveway at the stroke of ten, wearing a trench coat and pulling a little suitcase on wheels. Thinking… Continue Reading “The End of Mean Charlie”
Dangerous
Anything can happen. I remember my daughter telling me this. It was after the apartment next to hers in Palm Springs blew up in the middle of the night. She’d been in her new place just a few days, unwittingly moving next door to… Continue Reading “Dangerous”
Elegy Updated
Stand with 10,000 ghosts Hear their last words Hurrying to the river Running into the trees Shedding this life for new Drop your envy and yearning on the ground Nestle your love in the rocks’ mortar Be part of the wall that stays behind… Continue Reading “Elegy Updated”
After Your Funeral
When you’re gone Your things stay They breathe And live Replace you Speak you What you were Parts in stacks In drawers Things forgotten Now precious Pieces of paper You touched are golden
My Funeral Playlist
I’m working on my funeral playlist. So far I have: Fire and Rain, James Taylor Morning Has Broken, Cat Stevens Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay, Otis Redding Time in a Bottle, Jim Croce God Only Knows, Beach Boys Bridge Over Troubled Water,… Continue Reading “My Funeral Playlist”
Witness to War
My parents never came. If they had come, things would have been different. My mother would take up her spot next to the kitchen sink. She would stand with her arms folded and a dish towel over her shoulder, the smoke from her cigarette… Continue Reading “Witness to War”
Witness to a Broken Heart
I had a sister once. She didn’t die. She just left and never came back. The time she left before this last final time which has lasted twenty-eight years, she left for just six months. We differed about something, one of us made a… Continue Reading “Witness to a Broken Heart”
My Lovely Funeral
I woke up in the middle of the night with a complete plan for my own funeral. It’s odd to have that degree of clarity and not consider it so fleeting that I should switch on the light and write it down on some… Continue Reading “My Lovely Funeral”
Snow Door | wisconsinacademy.org
Listen to Jan read her essay “Billy” presented on WUWM’s Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “At the Breakfast Bar” on WUWM Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “The Parish Hall,” on WUWM Lake Effect
“Fury Cannot Touch Me,” Modern Love, NYT, 9/29/11
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