I was aware, somehow, that people tended to get intense feelings about the bands they loved and that music had Mystery, capital M. But my family was not intense. We were American cheese on Wonder Bread.

I often confuse the dead horses
for trees. I say things like termites

care about the weather, or dark stars
will... more

About earlier, he had started to say —

— is that all you can think about, your duck?

We’re in line for beer and a guy in a Yankees hat turns to Tim, looks him up and down in his BoSoxery, and asks if he can buy his beers for half-price on our badge.
“Only if you say the Yankees suck,” Tim says.

What I do know: Janet Wellington made eye contact with me in the YMCA pool. I also never had a chance to look my mother in the eye and say goodbye. 

The Triple Crown is alcohol, weed, and Adderall. Hank did the Triple Crown on prom night at Emma’s parents’ house.

Carrot Flowers

We are toward somewhere in the first sentence. There is June & us or us or June... more

On a cold and rainy Sunday afternoon when I didn’t want to walk outside: a box proclaiming to be synthetic urine for sale in Nirvana, next to Louie’s Tux Shop and across from C.J. Banks in the Muncie Mall, behind the counter where they sell glass pipes blown to resemble tiny carrots and octopi, next to a rack of Rasta wigs.

I turn 30 next month but I’m no longer afraid because I read somewhere that time is an illusion. I am purchasing an anti-aging moisturizer, just in case. It’s expensive, but money is no object. I’m worth four figures.

Neck Tattoo

Your neck tattoo spoke to me but I needed a
translator. Needed a nail gun, a barn wall... more

In the morning I opened fewer GI Joes. Fewer video games. Then my father showed me what he had built.

I was looking forward to ruining my chances of being able to run or march anywhere. 

More than most players, examining Guerrero's life feels like voyeurism, or like wandering hospital corridors with your head on a swivel. When he was good, he was, as James suggested, astonishingly good... But his bad times were difficult to watch, and lacked the privacy that we'd all hope would greet our worst moments.

real / unreal

last night i had a dream         
            that my teeth fell
out all in a... more

Our first stop was Red Rock Canyon, down at the bottom end of the Sierras. The rocks, as promised, were red. It was pretty. We ate our... more

I found out about William Bates when I begin struggling with vision loss, in my mid-twenties. If you try to research vision loss in any capacity, you find him.

Vapor of Breath

All hail Michigan Dogman. All
slobber and standing seven feet
tall, Michigan Dogman... more

When I was a freshman in college (many years ago, before the marriage and the children and the divorce and the loss of faith in God), I saw a man order eight McDoubles at a McDonald’s on campus and then proceed to eat them all.

I’m meeting a friend for drinks and a Friday night concert; work is days, a train ride and a major city away. 

the babies are most dangerous because
            they have not learned how to control their... more

I’ve been tasked with digitizing my father’s slides, a hundred or so he inherited from his aunt.

While they wrote about the never-ending snowstorm in the first pages of their novel: outside of their apartment, snow began to... more

i am your man

tall stranger man
you have sung a lot of songs 
you fall in love often
and... more

I was going to see Verdi’s Falstaff with Robin.  My driver said “I hate Bill de Blasio. The MTA is corrupt. Uber is corrupt. I’ve been driving... more