Valentine's View

Stare out the gray day window
to the park below. A wheelchair
couple. Old. Much older than you.
She fusses the red blanket around him.
Walks behind his eyes. Pushes him
where they can go. You watch,
wonder if you’ll be so lucky,
who will ride and who will push.
Who will get there first.

Veins of Ink

There sits a widow.
Des Moines. Poplar Street.
Where the sparrows live.
She is the only one
in our world who writes
just for herself, not
for strangers’ eager
eyes, so don’t lie
about why you sit
with the pen you choose,
the keyboard you click.

James Grady is the author of screenplays, articles, and over a dozen critically acclaimed thrillers. Born in Shelby, Montana, Grady worked a variety of odd jobs, from hay bucker to gravedigger, before graduating from the University of Montana with a degree in journalism. In 1973, after years of acquiring rejection slips for short stories and poems, Grady sold his first novel: Six Days of the Condor, a sensational bestseller which was eventually adapted into a film starring Robert Redford. After moving to Washington, D.C., Grady worked for a syndicated columnist, investigating everything from espionage to drug trafficking. He quit after four years to focus on his own writing, and has spent the last three decades composing thrillers and screenplays. His body of work has won him France’s Grand Prix du Roman Noir, Italy’s Raymond Chandler Award, and Japan’s Baka-Misu literary prize. Grady’s most recent novel is Condor (2023). He and his wife live in a suburb of Washington, D.C.