- He’s not here.

That’s a photograph, taken with a film camera, of my father, Stephen Kokernak, and my son, Eli Guterman, at the Harvard Square apartment of my sister Emily and her then boyfriend/fiancé. My father made the comics hat on his head to entertain Eli; he made hats like that for us when we were children. Eli [...]

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- Seasonal shoe parade

Twice a year, on a sunny, dry day, I arrange in the driveway all the shoes that have accumulated in the front hall, mudroom, and garage, like so:
We all browse our own clusters of shoes and decide which to put away, which to keep in rotation (near the door), and which to say goodbye to.  [...]

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- Rare photo

This is a rare photo of me without my disguise, I mean, my glasses.

This photo is also rare in that how I felt in the moment (of my picture being taken) is how this picture looks: relaxed, unguarded, content. I like it.
Last summer, sitting around on my parents’ deck and talking to my siblings [...]

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- Verified

Last fall’s mystery plant, which I identified as a Euphorbia, has risen again. Its leaves are limier and its bracts are yellow. (Hmm, I guess this one is not Euphorbia ‘Rubra‘ or ‘Excalibur’, as I speculated previously. )

Sunday I strolled the section of yellow-flowered perennials at Allandale until I spotted a twin to [...]

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- Four characters

Months ago, I asked a favor of Y., a student I have known for two years. She is a regular in the writing center, and she was in my composition class last spring. All teachers secretly root for and are attracted to certain kinds of students, and this is something you start to [...]

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