My Mother's Eyes

I pay more attention to my eyes than maybe is normal, due to the necessity to put drops in them twice a day, to control glaucoma. And every once in a while I see in my eyes my mother looking at me.

Maybe my father is looking at me, too, but I wouldn't know, because he left this life when I was six. I had no chance to become so well acquainted with all the subtleties of his face and his personality.

Hickory Heartwood

Due to the strength of their heartwood, whether years dead through the processes of Nature or after being attacked only minutes ago with chain saws, big hickories, with the bases of their trunks severely undercut, still tend to remain standing, long after other trees of the same size, even their equally stout and stately neighbors, the oaks, would have fallen.