Mary Grace Bertulfo

65,000 gallons on land. “The oil spill has been contained,” an official-sounding man from Caterpillar chirped brightly on NPR’s morning newscast. No more wildlife will be affected – beyond the ones already touched. 6,000 gallons of oil sludged into the Des Plaines River. How many blue gills? How many herons? How many egrets? How many [...]

Flat white Great Lakes sky, Distant frozen fog, Yet warm enough for hammers to sound on rooftops. Men work in hooded sweatshirts, jeans, thin tennis shoes upon brick bungalows that kept us warm in the bleak months. But the trees stand haggard, bare-limbed and stoic. Maple and oak and Kentucky buckeyes – indistinguishable to my [...]

Perched securely on a branch above my car, the Cooper’s hawk munched on young pigeon. Starlings scattered, downy feathers drifted like summertime snow upon my head.