July 4th Fireworks
[Third place winner in the Storytelling Contest non fiction category.] Have you ever seen fireworks in broad daylight? Often associated as a nocturnal sighting, I was mesmerized to hear them implode above us on July 4th, 2020.
Dementia
The sickly sweet aroma of the elderly wafts upwards as I walk through the hallways. She sits on her bed...
Cordelia
a public chortle, woven and gleeful
Crevasse
One day there’ll be a reactor meltdown. The seas will swelter in a vicious response
My Experience as a Black Man and Prospective Juror In San Francisco’s Hallowed Halls of Justice
It was a rainy and blustery Tuesday morning. Clutching a white, large-canopied umbrella, with rainwater splashing around my footsteps, I...
Fast or Slow
In the middle of the crowded highways Looking at the busy fast vehicles I think Nobody seems to care for...
Candle Man
His opulent flame burns with an optimistic flow, spurs pirouetting memories in a room that’s dim;
This Date in UCSF History: Whistleblower Describes Tragic ‘Study’
[Originally published in Synapse on Jan. 20, 1994.] In a Jan. 12 talk at UCSF, Peter Buxton described his efforts...
Nudity and Clothing in Monkeys, Scientists and Vaccines: What it Reveals and What it Hides
Why is the Western scientist always clothed? What would happen if science was conducted, metaphorically, in the nude? Thinking through...
the mermaiden
my roses are yellow, as yellow as the hair of the mermaiden,