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PAUL E NELSON

Happy 4th Birthday Ella Roque Nelson

Happy Birthday today, March 17, 2016, to my youngest daughter Ella Roque. She got her first taste of chicharrones this week and here’s a little poem inspired by her actions this morning. Maybe it was all the flax seeds in the smoothie, whatever, I love this kid...

Hillman City Haibun 7, Father, Lawns, Bangs, Chickens

Going through Fatherhood a second time, there are many notions that go through my mind on a regular basis. One is what will be my youngest daughter’s earliest memory? I think about dancing in the kitchen to Charlie Christian with the Benny Goodman Orchestra, or to the...

Cuba Libre

I had just dropped off my daughter Ella Roque at her Spanish immersion pre-school and parked in front of my favorite juice bar when the top of the hour radio headlines broadcast that President Obama would be announcing a shift in U.S.-Cuba relations. I called my...

1st Crop of 2013 American Sentences

One function of my practice of writing a daily American Sentence is as a journal. I will go back to these not for the literary merit, but to remind myself of life’s little trials and twists. Having a baby. Having a hernia. Not being able to pick up a baby...