Hero Worship
Listen, it’s as simple as this: I will not take direction nor guff from any man with a pair of swinging balls dangling from the rear bumper of his pickup truck.... Read more.
All the Pretty Paintings
So we go to this gallery—me, Marie, the kids—and it’s not only what I expect, it’s worse. Awful, pointless, white. Everywhere white, the art and the crowd. ... Read more.
Resurrection
I dreamt I was the ashes of Christ kneaded into Earth’s Folds proceeding the Ensuing Flood, reanimated into Geoffrey Chaucer’s parched... Read more.
Santa Always Blows His Cover
It was Christmas 1995 when Mom burnt the bacon and Dad was just getting home. I tore open the packaging to the Mortal Kombat-brand plastic ship and Ray pulled a... Read more.
Men Without Hearts, Inc.
They say when you fall in love, you give her a piece of your heart. So when things go bad, and she’s gone, you lose a piece of yourself — forever. I agree with... Read more.
Morning Drive, March 2019
In such a serpentine situationAs Interstate 410 before eight a.m.,Language is not quite precise—Aggro jazzOf chrysalis lives,Some in Chryslers Accelerating, Halting... Read more.
The Great Thing About Being Sometimes Hispanic
The part when I infiltrate the imperialist hive,But not the part when my wings fall off The part when I can afford to shop at Target,But not the part when I still... Read more.
Mixed Feelings
Mixed materials is another way to create confusion.Mixed materials is another way to infuse infusion.Mixed materials is another way to have fun.Mixed materials is... Read more.
Sir Bob
Bob Woodward, you media gigolo,you're making me think naughtythoughts about you---Deepthroatingthe ripe juicy details out of that HousePainted White, mongering our... Read more.
TV Religion
I watched a complete stranger, a boy, baptized on television.The priest hugged the child like his own son, smiling like a proud father.The congregants, a sea of... Read more.
Shark Soup
I have an irrational fear in theshower when I close my eyes that ashark will burst through the tilewall and devour me whole Perhaps that’s because within thered... Read more.
Firepool
I’ve studied Shakespeare and read Hemingway. I’ve marveled at Poe and Hawthorne, Pynchon and Roth, Murakami and King, too. Philip Levine taught me the simple... Read more.
Mountain Smoke
1.I remember the promise of the mountains, the alpine summer breeze clearingour pores, the entranced look you gave me on Highway 14 Remember the chip factory next... Read more.
Salt
I’d read once that Salinas, the surname that graces every form of my identity,was born in the salt mines of old Spain, where many men surely perished. Myuncle... Read more.