Imagery

Barefoot girl in a backless dress

Streetlights on wet pavement

The shadow of a small plane flickers

across the contours of the grassy shoreline

Long-haired boys and short-haired girls

A blue Adirondack chair by itself on the lawn

Wind-blown palms  through mosquito netting

Red flowers on a black background

The smell of chlorine and Coppertone

A big-breasted blonde in a black bikini

Passenger jet streaking over black hills in a twilight sky

A white blouse with black buttons

Red sweater in a black-and-white world

Eyelashes wasted on a boy

Cliche curtains ruffled by a lacy breeze

The we in Tumbleweed

Photo by Leland Zaitz

To the girl born with a pack on her back:

Entwine your pulled-up roots with mine

We'll turn ourselves into a tumbleweed

And ride the wind wherever it takes us

To Rome

Cappuccino to sit or stand
Gloves to fit any hand
The view from the roof
The sound of hooves
Hold me now and don’t let go

Vestments for sale in the window
Lingerie for a merry widow
In the streets children play
Past and present on display
We’ll walk together in the afterglow

A sleek black Maserati
The sweet tenor of Pavarotti
A procession of the broken-hearted
A grave for the dear departed
Everything is done for show

The dry bones of an ancient saint
The tears of a woman feeling faint
A walk to Trevi fountain
Enough desire to move a mountain
Now’s the time to make it so

A bottle of fine Chianti
That song by Harry Belafonte
Bells in towers chime
But we still have time
Let’s forget everything we know in Albergo del Senato

Santa Margherita, September 2002

We awoke in darkness.
Not a sliver of light anywhere.
Eyes open, pure black.
There was just the sound of the rain and a light wind,
water from the roof splattering on the stone terrace
outside the glass doors of our Villa Gnocchi bedroom.
Then, boom!
Thunder like we'd never heard before.
Thunder loud enough to make our bodies twitch
and our eyes pop open.
The rain came louder, too, followed by more thunder.
Again, and again, and again.
Then flashes of lightening.
At first I was able to count to nine
between lightning flash
and thunder clap.
Then zero.
Joanne's body tensed in my arms.
Finally the storm subsided.
Did it really last for hours?
I lay awake wondering when the dawn would come.
Eventually a little light peeked through the curtains.
It was our first time
in Italy.

Our Time in the Mediteranean

Here's what I liked best ...

• Spaghetti with clams at Ristorante da Donato, around the corner from our hotel in Rome.
• Seeing Trevi Fountain again, the Spanish Steps, and a bit of the Borghese Gardens.
• The rooftop bar of the Albergo del Senato, where we stayed, on the same square as the Pantheon.
• Being able to walk everywhere from there—the Coliseum, the Forum, St. Peter's.
• Ordering iced tea and being asked if I want peach tea, because, yes, in fact, I do.
• Dark chocolate gelato from Giolitti.
• Death by Chocolate at Tre Scalini on the Piazza Navona.
• Coming into Genoa by ship and seeing the city from the water.
• Lying flat on our backs on the ship's helipad late at night, seeing the true brightness of the stars, and understanding how the Milky Way got its name.
• Gnocchi with pesto at Ristorante il Pozzo in Monterosso on the Cinque Terre (part of the coastal region known as Liguria, where pesto was invented).
• Anchoring offshore in Villafranche and taking the little ferry into town.
• The turquoise water in nearby Nice.
• Listening to two Spaniards, probably brothers, play Pachelbel's Canon, with feeling, on violin and bass, in Barcelona.
• Wandering around Palma de Mallorca and buying stamps for post cards we wrote and failed to mail.
• Sa Tuerredda beach on Sardinia after the rain stopped and the sun came out.
• The fact that we could be in Rome one day and Sunnyvale the next.

25 Random Things About Me

1. I'm a Scorpio. That surprises people. I don't know why.
2. I'm very open and very secretive at the same time.
3. I am trying to be what God wants me to be: free.
4. I'm fond of singers with distinctive voices: Van Morrison, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen ...
5. I believe in being undecided about most things.
6. I'm writing a short novel with a long title: The Boy Who Broke Sabrina's Window.
7. I like to travel almost as much as I like to stay at home.
8. All through school I was horrible at spelling, but I'm pretty good at it now.
9. I once ran the Seaside Marathon in Oregon, but it took me five hours to finish.
10. I've never wished I was somebody else.
11. I think I may be the slowest reader on the planet.
12. I have a red belt in Dahn Mu Do.
13. I never liked my hair until my friends started going bald.
14. I'm told my mother tried to abort me (she'd had five kids already), but I know she loved me deeply.
15. I like offbeat movies like Rushmore and Juno.
16. I've always wished I could sing.
17. I'm always buying blank books even though I only write on a computer.
18. I tend to keep things for years, thinking I might need them.
19. I used to be a neat-freak, but I'm mostly over it.
20. I've been married to the world's kindest person for 32 years.
21. I am the only member of my immediate family who was conceived in America.
22. Always small for my age, I was only 5-foot-6 when I entered high school (and 6'1" when I graduated).
23. Favorite quote: "Tell me the truth, but try not to hurt my feelings."
24. I don't like goals or deadlines.
25. I've never really planned anything about my life, other than becoming a writer.