Rehearsing for Nothing

At Grateful Dead shows at the Hartford Civic Center I remember gazing across the expanse between my upper level and the other side. The roil...

The jet at rest on the tarmac with the light blinking on its belly. The steady pulse, dull-bright-dull, seems like code from benevolent high...

I stared a long time at the dollar off coupon for mouthwash that came in the little plastic pouch she gave me, with the soft-bristled toothb...

At Aetna in Middletown, Connecticut, they had cake for everyone’s birthday and every day was someone’s birthday. A bigass building in a maze...

I was thinking of eating and drinking and all, how you might as well you know, life is short. The image of my old schoolmate crossed my mind...

There was something about the sky the other night. A long dark streak cutting through the dusky blue. I thought, is this something to write ...

A solitary plastic fork on the low wall down the block. They say the suspect has been tearful, emotional. Appearing in court in a dark suit,...

Here I am because I said I’d be here. A day of avoiding news and watching unused credits return to my account. The gentle timing out. A mist...

Getting to the bottom of this beer I thought of Kris Kristofferson and his having one for dessert. There’s something wonderful about the sm...

Driving the highway past my old hometown I remember the exits, the ramps, the secondary roads. But I’m not sure I remember which way to turn...

Alan had made an arrangement with some guy who had a little ad sales business or something, maybe an old friend from a past career. He occup...

Josh and Tom and I walked out drunk and dropped Tom off at the ferry for Jersey. Josh and I walked back uptown. The city was naked, unprotec...

While I waited for the show to go on I noticed the discreet atmospheric light on the wall of the movie theater flickering and I thought it’d...

I was at work texting with a friend back home and he let it be known our other friend’s in a bad way. He has some kind of complication relat...

I love the long, zigzagging hallway, the barren decor. The beige linoleum floor and the outlets saying do not use. Each number called starts...

I normally took the 1 or the 9 from Penn Station but they weren’t running so I took the C. When I walked by the 1-9 station on Canal the ent...

Harry’s family moved to Boston or one of those towns near Boston because his mom got some hifalutin job as a nutritionist at a university an...

We were in some kind of canyon in the south of France in the summertime, watching a jazz fusion band perform. A steep rock wall with boulder...

In the rush hour home on the A train a man walked into the space between the cars, with it freezing cold and everything—not permitted, dange...

The United States embarked on a foolish war in the Middle East that would have horrific consequences for untold millions living there and fo...