For Younger Readers

The stories and poems in this section may be most appropriate for middle-grade readers, but have something that can be enjoyed by everyone.

pasta noodles in outerspace

The Most Impossible Pasta Bowl

Some people like spaghetti,some prefer fettuccine. But my favorite pasta is infinitini.  Only the most impossible pasta bowlcan hold infinitini in it.Even a platter as vast as outer spacecouldn’t plate a dish so infinite.  It’s only one noodle...

The Heron

The heron stalks,The boat approaches.

His head turns,One foot lifting from water.

The boat chugs forward,No sympathy there.

Wings stretch,Like the unfurling of a cloak.

He glides,Driven away.

a white scarf on a wooden floor

My Offering to the House Thief

The house-thief strikesWhen I lay the scissors down,Vanishing them under whatever scarfIs most forgettable.I disassociate from room to room, andI check the counter three times.But the house-thief has snatched themAnd dragged them down to thatIn...

beach with palm trees

A Dunce of Dodoes

The portal appeared in the middle of an empty beach. Through the glowing blue upright rectangle a mixed group of half-a-dozen men and women stepped out. The dry white sand crunched slightly beneath their feet. The portal shimmered for a few moments...

Clarissa the Gentle Dragon

Long, long ago, in the days when dragon songs still filled the air, there was a beautiful, golden dragon named Clarissa. She exercised her wings each day and dreamed of the time when she would be big and strong, so she too could fly all the way down...

A fox looking off into the distance.

The Hungry Giant

There was no safe place in the entire world from the rain of stars. The fox fled to the one place he knew, the one place he remembered, where he had felt safe and secure and happy. He ran to the mountain and the cave near the watching giant.

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