I called my friend up one night and said, “Hacienda.” He said, “Ok,” back, sort of half-obediently. I said, “Bet,” and hung up the phone. It was 5:30 in the afternoon on a Monday in December, faint glimmers of masquerading light left in the grey evening sky. I was there in 20 minutes, with a […]

The piranhas come In rapid fire Dressed as confined rightness And they will hold their positions Of privilege Far after the man with the emotional arc Succumbs And their static expedition Is the fuel on which this country runs, The impossibility of approaching them Galloping in tandem with The general din of the world around […]

I work with two girls doing grocery resets, Cassie and Liz. . We’re all pretty amiable, Tired, typically, Starting at seven in the morning and Doing a lot of work on our hands and knees. . Both of the girls I find pretty enjoyable to work with And I come from a family of myself, […]

The “Edgewood Walk” street sign Hit me like a burglar in the night, In a sense, In that I was in the midst of an obligation, On my break from work, And not in a position to Walk through the wooded, Creek-flanking backyard of an old acquaintance And hijack a canoe With my friends That […]

I saw something on the dark, confined morning, and it kind of confirmed what I’d been seeing a lot of, in recent enterprises. It was a bumper sticker that read, “536/53/537.” It was on a car with a Notre Dame license plate which turned away from Notre Dame, and away from all the population, onto […]

In the same bar That overlooks the river By which I grew up I’ve talked to a bartender from San Francisco Who moved here out of financial necessity And hated it here, I’ve heard doctors and lawyers Who were in the mood for lobster And so went to Maine for the weekend, I’ve seen gorgeous, […]

I believe in something. But why should I use it to oppress others? What would it have to do with this foreground We face every day? What I believe in Is constant and unchanging, Like the ground on which I walk. It’s like “The Moon is down” by John Prine, It’s an immovable object, A […]

I pressed my moistened, Defiantly mundane visage To the summer camp, To the baseball game, To the rock concerts, . Er, I’ll emaciate my presence, You’ll see, I stifle the gods with… . With… . ALABASTER… . And now alabaster will be the focal point Of this transcript-fulfilling endeavor here Which I am currently quantifying […]

Across the street From a Harding’s In a small, suburban town near here Sits a bookstore, fairly small, Full of dirt-cheap, used books, And, as far as I know, No new ones. . The owner is the son of the original owner, Who was once an overweight man With a grey Walter Raleigh mustache. . […]

It seems that all of a sudden The beauties, bounties and travails of life Can be synopsized in three minutes, With the notable help of feather-light cymbal crashes, Robust upright bass and Those pipes like a trained pit bull, Like he’s seen He** and now he’s in heaven, In Berry Gordy’s studio proffering the Structurally […]