Oak wood braced the banisters, blue and gold drapes cuddled the windows. A painting of John and Samuel Adams with James Bowdoin drafting the Massachusetts Constitution hung above the platform. The state representatives began to fill the chamber, clustering in clicks, chitchatting and laughing.

The speaker hit the gavel against the sound block, and the room settled. He quoted, “For every problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.” [more]

I sat, parked outside a Jamaican restaurant, looking forward to a curry shrimp dinner with white rice and mixed vegetables.

A young black man walked down the street. He wore discolored blue jeans and a grey sweater. His Afro hair was a mess, nappy and uncombed. [more]

I stared at his mug shot.

I remembered.

It was another gang intervention. We identified 25 of the city’s most violent gangs and their most influential members. Charles sat across from me. We asked him and others, “please stop.”

It was ghostly. Steven Odom crossed my mind.

Steven was probably playing basketball as we pleaded with the young man who would soon become Steven’s murderer. [more]

While waiting at a red light, I saw my mother and her boyfriend. I rolled down the window and asked, “Where are you going?” She said, “Did Baby Danny get the $5.00?”

A simple question, but not. Mother, daughter, grandson. Family. Recent emotions and events. Mother and sister fighting. My sisters at war. [more]

As I waited for the bail magistrate in the police station’s lobby, I read the walls.

A plaque honoring a fallen officer read, “Dear Lord, be good to me the sea is so wide and my boat is so small.” (An Irish fisherman’s prayer.) [more]