Milton Brasher-Cunningham

poem for fall

Thanks, Christine, for the poetry party. Peace, Milton

love and lesser things

I was looking out Towanda’s Window the other day and saw this: Cornel West The phrase has stuck with me because I’ve kept thinking about what love looks like in public, and what form love takes as it gets lived out in our various relationships. Church, for instance.

happito

Jorge is one of the people I work with who inspires me. He is a dishwasher who does a great job, but that’s not what gets me. Jorge works at both the restaurant at Duke and the Durham restaurant where I work. From Monday to Friday, he works from

yard work

I mow the grass not out of conquest, but obligation -- even simple necessity: if I don’t, our little dog disappears in the growing greenery that passes for a lawn. I’m not much of a turf builder. And so I pull-start the machine and begin traversing the yard,

the whole plate

Some parts of my job come easily for me – the cooking part, for instance. Some parts have a steeper learning curve – figuring out food costs, for one. In order to be profitable, what it costs to buy all the food needs to cost less than a third of what we

storm troopers

Corpus Christi, Texas is bracing for a hurricane; I am fasting, preparing for my colonoscopy; both I and my birthplace are being evacuated. Peace, Milton

fall music sampler

I got wrapped up in my mind tonight and found myself to tangled to write, so I untangled myself by browsing through some of the music my nephews have shared with me. Here are some folks doing great stuff. Brett Dennen opens "Ain't No Reason" by

recipe for living

The beginning of the school year has meant a move for me. I’m back at Duke, as the chef for a restaurant my boss contracts to run on the Duke campus. We are open Monday to Thursday nights, and then I still work Sunday nights at the restaurant where

what sam has to say

I’ve always been a big fan of words. I love their sounds, their meanings, the many ways they can be put together. I am pulled by poetry because it is words at their best, standing in fresh light, speaking deep truths, unlocking hearts. After the last couple of nights

home room

(with apologies to middle schoolers) I’m sitting between Gustav and Hanna in the homeroom of life, wondering how to make sense of everything coming through the loudspeaker, the stream of non sequiturs that passes for news and the endless storm of chatter that follows, each of us choosing sides

he gave us wings

He took the wings we weren’t going to use for dinner. We serve a roast chicken dish, so we cut up the birds so each customer gets one piece that is half of a breast with the first section of the wing bone attached and a second piece that

texas wants me anyway

Life is clipping along for me at a speed that makes reflection feel a bit like a luxury. Though I’m grateful for most of the things going on right now, I’m always wary of going too long without taking stock and doing my best to listen. They don’