Wait

Off the beaten trail from The French Quarter. A tiny gutted Craftsman bungalow, one story, an open porch. Enough space for eight tables, like we always dreamed. Two on the porch, two in the windows. The others in the middle of that slanted Creole living room we called our restaurant.  You insisted we had moreContinue reading “Wait”

Whitechapel Cat Calls

When he’s gone this long, he usually leaves the terrace window open. Forgotten, or delayed. Either way, the food’s running thin, and the city’s seductions are calling. The strays in heat are yowling and leisurely carriages are clip-clopping outside my brickhouse lair. I pounce up the stairs to my landlord’s study, three flights above theContinue reading “Whitechapel Cat Calls”

Relegated Vessels

[a redraft from the story, A Relegated Ship, Run Aground, included in Strangely Fierce Fables] She is a rusted merchant ship, the oldest remaining in Ireland, moored to rest along the banks of the Grand Canal. She’s named the Naomh Éanna. Completed in Dublin’s Liffey Dockyard in 1958, sailing in her prime as an AranContinue reading “Relegated Vessels”

A Captain’s Compass North 

The iceberg breaking hull was a master chef’s knife, wasted and gliding deftly through calm, buttery arctic waters. Clouds were pulling themselves apart and winter’s night sky constellations shone torchlights across scattered icebergs safely in the shadowy distance. This polar expedition passed quietly as the crew laid slumber and the captain handed over the night’sContinue reading “A Captain’s Compass North “