Michelangelo's Shoulder

A series of linked short stories follows an itinerant painter through park benches, studio rooms, and small-town routines as he befriends a pigeon-feeding woman named Ruby, recalls a past love, and relies on friends Riles and Kai. Episodes move between domestic detail, the discipline of artmaking, and brief romantic entanglements, revealing the narrator's longing, occasional generosity, and ambivalence about success. Recurring images of portraits, public meals, and sudden departures emphasize aging, desire, and the strain between artistic drive and making a living. Other pieces turn on fleeting attractions and reflective narrators who wrestle with memory, missed chances, and the search for connection.