Posts in Personal Essay
DA Office, 3:10 PM, Friday Afternoon

Have we got a case for you, counselor. See, there’s this company; three shifts, so there’s always people around. But our boy don‘t know that. Part of the place is under construction; he grabs a ladder and goes up on the roof. He takes 5 big buckets of roofing glue and throws them down this hole to the second floor, just to watch how pretty it looks spreading all over the floor, I guess.

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Colonia Cuauhtemoc, 2001

Morning in my old neighborhood in Mexico City; and tamales still steam in large, shiny metal containers that look like new garbage cans. A man in a navy blue jumpsuit cuts oranges and soaks carrots, beets and celery to make juice. For a few extra pesos, he will toss in a raw egg, guaranteed to cure a hangover.

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ICE: A MEMOIR

You reflected me skating on the rink under the neighbor’s yard light, blades scratching your surface. You creaked occasionally but did not complain. You sustained my drunken friends and me, along with a quarter ton of 1960s metal driving the road plowed across the Rainy River to Canada, land of dances with live bands from Winnipeg and bars that didn’t card.

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Coming Down From Trial

It’s been more than 26 years since I tried my first case, but one thing never changes: the adrenaline drop afterwards. When I was a brand new public defender, the first thing I’d do after my jury went out to deliberate is head to my favorite cafe to have a triple (yes, a triple) espresso and something chocolate. Thus fortified, I could ride out the high for a long time.

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April Blizzard

We are all tuned to our phones, our iPads, our TVs–maybe even our radios–in advance of the Big Storm headed our way. Snow from Canada, rain from the south, all of it colliding right above our martyred Minnesota. The meteorologist says, “There’s a big swirl up there…” And we shiver.

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