a thousand words (or more) dated two o’clock (in the morning) from the first year, written over the course of three days (and again as many nights) about a man who died with nothing to his name, owner not even of his own soul, who kept nothing and consequentially had nothing, bred as he was on the stale bread of self-denial and the crusts and rinds ( Read more... )

“Them cell phones, hell man. What they thinking? As if the place you ain’t is better than the place you is. As if the folks you ain’t with somehow more important than the folks you is with. Folks wanna talk to me, they best come up and talk to me,” Tommy said. “Boy, what is you talking about?” Jimmy said. “You disappoint me, son. Like you even ( Read more... )

The words never change. Each week it’s the same. We seem to find a sad comfort in the ritual. We tell our old jokes, retread our old stories, revive the old, dead fire that never had a hearth. And I think we start out by talking about our families’ newest illnesses because that’s what can’t be changed in our lives. We get our coffee, find our ( Read more... )

Hot coffee, keep it coming. Half, quarter pound chopped beef. Walnut, scramble eggs. Keep it on the easy side. Dairy, ain’t no dairy in that. And they argued and argued around and around about whether or not Johnny Cash was in Folsom prison or just went to Folsom prison. And they said Skynyrd wasn’t from Alabama but just sang the song. And they ( Read more... )

The skies turned black when I read her letter, my shaking hands flipping the single page over and over in an anxious search for more words, only to return again and again to the front side to feel the round, black ink strewn across cheap paper in haste with my fingertips. The rain was coming-I could feel it. My eyes grew clouded as the storm ( Read more... )

This is a commentary about sports that was intended as a response to techstep’s link to this article about the state of the NBA. Apparently it seems that Dwyane Wade is a bigger threat to the free world than global warming! But for once I’m the optimist.
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Come inside. Line up. Turn around. Put your notes away. Comb your hair back. Slap a smile on. Suck your gut in. Right, now go ahead and step outside.
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Those automatic kiosks at the grocery store where you scan your own groceries, right? They freak me out. I’m fascinated by them but they freak me out. They’re so demanding. They want you to scan the item and then put the scanned item in the plastic bag. I guess it has a weight sensor to tell if you did it or not, because if you don’t put it down ( Read more... )

Fifteen minutes to kill. I have just that many. Ah, and there are so many ways to kill them. I can kill fifteen kittens in half an hour, the slow way. I know because I’ve timed it. I could ring fifteen little necks in fifteen different ways. No, but with only fifteen minutes, I couldn’t get even half that done. It takes a while to get my rhythm ( Read more... )

I want a Pepsi. Give me a Pepsi. I want a Pepsi now. Give it to me. Give me the Pepsi now. I want you to give me a Pepsi. Give me what I want. What I want is Pepsi. Give it to me now. I want it. Give me. Give me the Pepsi I want. I want you to give me the Pepsi I want. Give me what I want now. Give me the Pepsi. Now, give it-the Pepsi. Give the ( Read more... )