I don't absolve my father completely of his responsibility for what he did to us I feel compassion, maybe. He had his demons. But I still can't understand how a man can walk away from children. And leave them to starve, as we nearly did, if it wasn't for my mother going out and begging.

After a full belly all is poetry.

You feel a sense of urgency, especially at my advanced age, when you're staring into the grave.

Happiness is hard to recall. Its just a glow.

I asked my dad what afflicted meant and he said 'Sickness son, and things that don't fit.'

In the high school classroom you are a drill sergent, a rabbi, a shoulder to cry on, a disciplinarian, a singer, a low-level scholar, a clerk, a referee, a clown, a counselor, a dress-code enforcer, a conductor, an apologist, a philosopher, a collaborator, a tap dancer, a politician, a therapist, a fool, a traffic cop, a priest, a mother-father-brother-sister-uncle-aunt, a bookeeper, a critic, a psychologist, the last straw.

We never really had any kind of a Christmas. This is one part where my memory fails me completely.