The highway is closed, on fire, and the wind is blowing like the world is coming to an end. I guess I could go to sleep. It’s been a while since I’ve slept. Maybe even dream. Of calm oceans and extinct volcanoes and quiet helicopters. Of a white house on a green cliff in Ireland. […]
Category Archives: Books
You think every story should end
Saturday, August 1, 2015
Up here in the high desert of Wyoming dead rabbits splatter the road. Perched atop telephone poles crows eye them hungrily. They, the crows that is, would be fat and happy. If this California traffic would ever cease.
I-70 Westbound, East of Oak Grove
Sunday, July 26, 2015
Back at their apartment, he wonders why she doesn’t answer his text. Out here in a ditch at the 36 yardstick, twisted metal and shattered glass, broken body and bleeding skin. A stranger holding her head in his lap, brushing her hair away from her sweaty face, praying to a busy god. The Highway Patrol […]
All the chocolate milk in this place is expired
Wednesday, July 22, 2015
This is an evil place. Built on the graves of the innocent, and the not so innocent. In the men’s room, a woman is crying in the handicap stall. I wash my hands, pretend I don’t hear her. I stumble back to the bar, pretend I remember where it is. Weaving through the noisy slot […]
Purgatory, Washington
Tuesday, July 7, 2015
Nothing here but heavy sun and dusty lots. Burning air and falling hills. Rail yards and cargo ports. Containers and ships. Vagrants and lot lizards. And greasy meals.
Silence makes them lonely
Wednesday, July 1, 2015
I wake at dusk, climb down into the hot and windy twilight. I’m hoping to see something I’ve never seen before. Two planets dancing like tripping hippies. The fabled Star of Bethlehem, which wise men once followed to a myth. From a quiet corner I watch the sky. Behind me trucks belch and hiss. The […]
I-70 Westbound, East of Concordia
Sunday, June 28, 2015
This one is fresh. A million pieces of windshield glittering in the sun. A woman holds her arms above her head, she weeps. She knows they’re lucky to be alive. Knows they’re even luckier to be unhurt. A man rubs his face, looks at the mess he’s made. Wonders how they’ll get home, how he’ll […]
Peter, put away your sword
Sunday, June 21, 2015
We pretend this place is safe. But this place is littered with the lost, crawling with the hateful, lousy with monsters. With easy access to firearms. Capable of killing nine people in under a minute. This place is very scary indeed.
Veterans press 1
Saturday, June 13, 2015
I went to the VA in Iowa City. Talked to a PhD student. She gave me articles to read. I went to the VA in Topeka. Talked to a Doctor. He gave me a Bible to read. I went to the VA And in the waiting rooms I talk to veterans who know Why I’m […]
Farewell Bend Motor Inn
Sunday, May 31, 2015
I hope for rain. I talk too much when I’m drunk. When I’m stoned. I don’t even know what I’m saying mostly. I watch this river snake its way to the ocean. I don’t like oceans. I do like lakes. I can wrap my head around the idea of a lake. I watch these trucks […]