They're calling for snow tonight. All the old-timers are falling for it, too. Hook, line, and fuckin' sinker. Hasn't been long enough since the last time it snowed. Oh, it was a while ago. Since the last real snow. Cold enough for long enough to stick and accumulate ( Read more... )

Everywhere else, the sky is irrelevant. I take no notice anywhere else. Here it's distracting. It's imposing. It rides your shoulders like an external conscience. An angel-devil combo that offers no advice--good or bad. It's dead weight. You'd shove it back up into place if you were stronger. But you're not. One heft upward buying time for a deep ( Read more... )

It's a murderous moon tonight. The crop is out and nothing's pressing in the morning. I'm a big boy with no strings all of a sudden. Got nobody to answer to but myself and whoever catches me. They'll have to hustle to do it, too ( Read more... )

I'll present you 100 proofs of the human condition. The ground will crack beneath the weight of our needs and dreams yet we expect to withstand the pressure. We won't. We will all fail this task. Some more spectacularly than others; some more tragically. Every step yields a scar. Every misstep yields mama's broken back ( Read more... )

Do you see what I see, Mr. Imes? I cracked the code. It only took a quarter-century of hypothesizing. Less testing than observation with the world as my control. My American south isn't slow. It isn't coat-tailed by heat and manual labor and deep-fried foods. If anything the weather's easing up, the work's tapering off, and the food's crapping out ( Read more... )

Give me a big, green balloon. I want one big enough with enough helium to raise me on my tiptoes. Give me the illusion I'm struggling to keep myself grounded while reaching for something way over my head. I want to believe I think I'm worth it--that struggle, the effort. Give me a reason and I'll take care of the rest ( Read more... )

Brother Paul warned me about this years ago. He condemned me for it a decade before I decided to do it. That didn't stop me from pulling back a tent flap and disappearing inside. There was no crystal ball. No tarot cards. No chicken bones. Just two folding chairs facing each other three feet apart. One occupied by a grossly-overweight black lady in ( Read more... )

I had big plans for us. Well, not "big" plans, I guess. No chapel business with bells and rice. No, I've had enough rice to last the next three lifetimes. I was ready to drop my shovel for a .38 in each hand. You know, just in case they aren't listening. We were gonna kick down doors on unsuspecting couples. Shoot everyone with travelers' checks ( Read more... )

I lived my heist 11 miles off the coast of Alaska. A four-deep band of castoffs formed the crew. Each running from something that we thought couldn't swim us down. We soon learned what we long feared--the problem was us. We were our own curse. At least we couldn't take anybody down with us here ( Read more... )

As kids we rode in the floorboard of daddy's truck. Burning up 49&61 back and forth between homes in our two-toned chariot. There he introduced us to AC/DC. And Cher. We'd stop every time we passed through Helena. For BBQ sandwiches--no slaw--and RC. On return trips, he'd say we reeked of Winstons. Then he doused us with a nicer Marlboro fragrance ( Read more... )