Why so stressed? Tom Ridge’s Homeland Insecurity alerts certainly hadn’t helped. Premonitions of what Bush’s bombing was going to do to neighborhoods full of people in Iraq made it worse. But then there was my particular, personal situation…(2003/03/07)

Anna’s gaze roved over the tightly clustered zinc roofs glinting in the sunlight like fish scales on the beach or, Ted thought, pieces of armor left scattered on a battlefield. (Stairways. Small Spiral Notebook, Spring 2006.)