Charles Harper Webb

It begins in Philadelphia, where the maternity nurse loves the Philadelphia Athletics, who rarely win and will soon move to Kansas City, taking their shortstop who gives C his nickname. Or it begins on a Maryland dairy farm, where mornings smell like [...]

Led by your father into the cave- like interior, guided to where the toilet bowl shimmers like a sacred stone that must be blessed in a smelly way, you see— foreign as love songs on the radio— marks that make your father glow with shame. What are [...]

when, in the first movement of the Emperor Concerto, as Beethoven tried to out-boom Napoleon, a woodpecker countered with gibbers and Bronx cheers. Next, every sprinkler on the grassy amphitheatre squeaked on, scattering listeners as if the Little G [...]

"Somewhere there's an uneaten Chinese dinner with our name on it."    —OverheardThe wonton soup drifts in warm fog just out of reach. Dragons circle the bowl as if to guard the one pink shrimp that bobs like a dead sea-monster. Wisps [...]