Hostage Situation

I. Wherever I turn, sparrows flash on pillars of air, And bewitching women poise in high windows; What can a person do in response to such abundance? Darwin played the trombone to his French beans, And Diogenes tried to refute it by getting up and walking away, But once you’ve divided one into two, You’re… More

The Localist

From there you could see the whole town: tear it down. Tear it down. -Mike McGriff To preserve the town, first turn your back on the world. Lose yourself completely. Then begin to undress in a creaking hotel where the floorboards each speak resonances to you, & their shifting makes clear your small town tectonics.… More

Train

I can almost touch her cheek in this London train that jostles us together, as time jostles back and forth between us on her phone, the videos she plays as if only she can see them. Here is a nightclub, here a pool, a cluster of girls in a mosque’s courtyard, now they’re clutching each… More

The X’s and Y’s of It

Professor X noticed Student X weaving down the hallway towards him.  Drunk, perhaps?  Not Student X, thought Professor X.  There must be some other explanation.  And so he intercepted him as he veered toward a corkboard scrambled with out-of-date announcements.  Are you OK, Professor X asked, looking into Student X’s saucered eyes.  Oh yes, said… More