This crazy preacher from Oakland—where there is no there. For weeks we laugh about it. Worry on facebook and twitter, plan parties for when all these meddlesome Christians will finally be taken away from us. The day breaks sunny and alive and we look nervously over our shoulders for any sign that we may have […]
Category Archives: Books
Driving away from dying things
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Yesterday I saw a cardinal, a beautiful and striking thing. It was lonely on the road, dying, its wings and back broken by a car. It lifted its head and chirped its orange beak and looked at me with expressionless eyes as I drove by. I watched it shrink in the rearview, watched it put […]
Failing the Turing Test
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Home again, he sits in the reclining chair and sets down the sweating beer, picks up the phone. Frowning, he puts it back down and picks up a book. The phone doesn’t blink with messages as often as it used to, but he is starting to think maybe that’s okay. The summer is coming and […]
Impossible oceans
Sunday, May 1, 2011
For weeks he had been trying to remember who his shampoo reminded him of. He is coming down out of the mountains and onto the plains again. A train heavy with coal and cars chugs towards California, its whistle as lonely as a fog horn. A wind farm rises on the horizon, massive white blades […]
I guess I would discourage you from California
Monday, April 25, 2011
Beautiful and open and shiny. The sun high and bright, the world around them buzzing with heat. Attracted, he comes in for a closer look. Such a strange sight way out here in the middle of nothing. He hesitates. Far from home, he circles slowly above. She winks and smiles. He goes down for a […]
It’s like living in nature living here
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Three in the morning on a new moon night. The world gone dark and silent. I sit up waiting for sleep to find me. Who who. I feel all the unseen creatures of the night freeze, their heartbeats quicken. Who who. The soft swooshing of feathers, the creaking of wings gliding under weight. A suddenly […]
You guest starred in our dreams last night
Sunday, April 10, 2011
We were riding an N-Judah that went off the rails and flipped upside down onto a passenger platform. There was much screaming and bleeding and gnashing of teeth and the doors opened and a T-Third Street was waiting for us. We tried to send C a text message on paper to complain about our ordeals, […]
12-28-10
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
An Open Letter to Xerox College Loan Corporation and Sallie Mae Let us begin by apologizing. For a long time we didn’t return your calls, didn’t open your mail, didn’t send you any checks. And for this we are sorry. We were working hard for a dying bookstore and still not making enough money for […]
9-15-10
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Maybe she’s fucking with him. The Oprah selected The Corrections for her book club too. But he expressed reservations about being picked by such a popular celebrity and she kicked him out of her club, dis-invited him from her dinner. That was nine years ago. We imagine she’s been anxiously waiting to pick his next […]
9-12-10
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Yesterday, on the train to work, so many Police. TSA, SFPD, FBI, DHS, CHP, ATF, DEA, INS, IRS. Big men wearing sunglasses underground. Some of them controlling languid working dogs. All of them sweating, all of them bearing weapons and heavy vests. And now we remember the date. Remember exactly where we were then. And […]