We are leaving today for the north

We have been interested in old friends for some time now. It seems they never really leave your consciousness. I made some calls but we happen to be in house of our friend while she isn't home. We hear she's making fabric with her son. The home is spread out and she has a new husband and child. Under the cabinet is an animal balloon with a marker face on it. We know that this is her work. You paint a round balloon with a red marker and secure it to the kichen counter.

4am/four boys scrap and play on the block

A puppet on a string swinging in his new hat ignorance becomes existence

This time we can see the bottom of the pool and it's so scary

• We are not as strong as we used to be. I used to carry five gallon jugs of water from the well on my second finger back to the cottage. Talk to me of commitment /talk to me of sacrifice/forty years we have created a lifestyle which works for us. Now they want us to lay down and recreate another path. Our children are on their toes/they know how fortunate we are to have what we now know as truths. When we were building the foundation people carried on and let us struggle with a finger pointed at us.

The New Year comes roaring in and takes us off guard

• We're standing in line at the supermarket. Our order is quite large/we need to stock up for the storm. A big burly fellow with a tattered coat is standing in front of us. He puts his hands back and we deliver a few cans and some groceries/he put them on the counter/we hand him a quarter. This happens about eight times when we realize we're being duped/ I ask him for the money back and reach over to his coat and pull out a white business size envelope containing papers/keys. He looks at us with a cranky face and runs out of the store. A lighter falls out of the envelope on the floor,we hesitate as to whether we should go after him but stay right where we are and finish the transaction.

THE ART AND LIVES of Francy and Steve Stoller /This has been a long time coming and we are bracing for the second novel

• The Memoirs Of An Unknown Artist/John Serpent/$4.95/Amazon-Kindle/e-book/wireless with an unpublished portrait of James Baldwin on the cover. We thank-you for your support ahead of time. The characters in this book are inspirational and family. Please take this journey into the early seventies through 9/11-with Etheridge Knight/Elizabeth McKim/Bradford Boobis/Henry N.Madden.

The end of the beginning of never/We return from the woods/wide-eyed

• We are in this ice covered cottage somewhere north of the Adirondacks/the morning snaps me out of bed and to the side door window/ the river is very frozen/there is a wooden house very close to the cabin/steep stairs go up the back of this structure/I can hear a loud radio playing some familiar talk show/ on the edge of the ice crevasse jutting into the point of entry into the back of the house/I see two pure white beagles and other unidentified animals/I cross out toward them/walk over some antique quilts lay behind the next door house/I am almost at the edge of the river/the animals are gone.

With honor to Elizabeth McKim/Having Come This Far/Always has to go further/A WANTON CHILD IN THE PARK

• Once when we were traveling on the motorcycle/we stopped in this dusty town and had a coke/I was afraid/where is Steve/was he going to find me/Here I am in Sweden/and he's in West Virginia/why was I so alone/didn't he know that I was calling him. What are we doing now that someone is calling us and we don't know . Do you write on the subway when you're going to work. Is that lil' journal in and out of your pocket/like some crazed person. What did you learn at the park/not to sit on people's feet at concerts/that your baby needs a chance to excel/that pride is given by the parents/poor children /the ones who are without their working pare

  nts/trying to give more and more/building a foundation of brick/a fortress which works/a hollow log to cozy up to at night. My girl put the baby's sweater and hat on/I took it off/like some silly child/it's 75degrees in the sun/but this princess must be swaddled in a half sleeping bag and two layers/but my little baby boy is wet and drenched with water that the lady permitted him to drink out of a miniature Evian bottle/we watch the crowd with a wistful eye/my grandbaby boy and I/what horror has my daughter seen that permits her to let her baby go naked in the park w/ the cold Fall shadows lurking/her grand view of the world/her new venture in motherhood/oh cut the shit/she tells me/she knows about gentility and grace/she is a master of finesse/she's the proper one/and to boot/the kid had the time of his life/how/tell me how could she be this high/MOMEEE/dADDEEE/ who will carry the dirty children home/w/muddy faces/ahh the soap smells sweet/sit down and wait for the bread to rise/always known the answers/watching it turn/bursting out/one last time.....Thank-you Sis