The Fourth of July Now approaches and Loud explosions are a big Part of the objective And 90 miles to the west Chicago sits as a sort of explosion Of sorts Ejecting various verbose, Booze-obsessed individuals Who will thereby lodge in northern Indiana Obsessing with horror movies And Malort And generally Reminding you of a […]

The boyfriend upstairs Laughs like Woody Woodpecker At 100 decibels All hours of the day Like a rapacious quest, Like an imperial attack On North Vietnam Rendered for arbitrary victory. . Well now the girl has “kicked him out” After he totaled her car, To then regain him on Memorial Day weekend, Finding him laughing […]

It was a rainy, unseasonably cool evening in the bar downtown. Pain was in the air, you might even say. It was the kind of night where you didn’t look anyone too closely in the eye. We were in Indiana. We were in the shadow of Chicago, of the University of Notre Dame, of Michigan, […]

Transposed onto the new world By a mountain of time, By a litany of portals into anxiety, I breathe in To find myself being crushed Under the constraints of capitalism. . In disbelief, I scowl back at my former self, Remember the emptiness of being a little kid, The impetus for mischief, And now, As […]

The music that plays when you walk by Is something that I have not heard yet Because if I had It would catapult me onto a king’s throne Surrounded by wild, staggering flames, Roaring lions and a moat surrounding a castle. . The music that plays when you walk by Swims in my blood And […]

Yesterday on my 10 a.m. break from work I wheeled over to this grassy area behind a Home Depot In South Logansport And just sat there in my car. . It was amazing how good it felt To lounge in my car On a 64-degree first of May And not worry about anything. . The […]

Homeless, Angry, I will lash out at you When you Are terrified, Attempting to cross the street In your hometown And suddenly the dumpster Doesn’t seem so bad to me And suddenly the dirty dish water In the sink Doesn’t seem so gross And I am guided by a white-hot light In this life Wherein […]

The YMCA is moved now From atop the riverbank To down in the basin on the opposite side, Yielding thoughts of dank mildew And the type of stagnancy which would align with its Positioning right next to the court house. . I think of going there and working out And my blood pressure ascends a […]

I was walking through Bloomington, up Third Street, past the Subway above which that Jared dude lived, past Swain and approaching the law school. Back in school, I’d lived in a house with three other people real close to here, over on second. Some nights would end up with the upstairs neighbors, sitting on the […]

The thing that surprised me most about moving back home was the overwhelming gush of esteem and compassion I encountered from the people here. Still, kitchen work was my line, and it made you thirsty. My late-night bar game usually consisted of the sports bar and then this little dive in the downtown of the […]