#poet

Summer Days

I don’t have any stories to tell in the summer, when the ocean swells up and the weather is soft and slow and cozy. I feel well in these summer days, and I just want to have a drink with the sun and be quiet for a while. DEAD RED FISH novel now on Amazon

Uncle Doug

I had an Uncle Doug who, every Sunday, would grumble and grunt and fuss his way into his bright green ’73 convertible Corvette, so that he could drive it around the neighborhood and feel young again. He’s dead now, though. Stroke killed him last year. And now the car sits under a tarp in myContinue reading “Uncle Doug”

Church

The bank I go to is in an old church building, with high cathedral ceilings and stained glass windows, and I can’t help but think that the bank owners maintained the old church look on purpose, to ensure that we know that the dollar is meant to be worshipped like the body of Christ. IContinue reading “Church”

Convenience Store

I kick up dirt on the rock shoulder of the road that I take to get to the convenience store by my apartment. Inside, two fat men are sitting at a table, sweating and spitting food at each other while they talk about a football game that they watched in the early nineties. I walkContinue reading “Convenience Store”

Friends

There’s a space between the inner part of the shower curtain and the outer part, where the lip of the tub comes up and there’s a ledge that’s big enough for the cat to lie on. She lays there sometimes when I shower. Seems kind of odd, but I also kind of like the company,Continue reading “Friends”

Blunt Ride

She calls me and says that she wants to go for a ride. I say, “ok.” She says that she wants to get high, and she asks if we can smoke tonight. I say that we can. And then I pick her up and we go for a drive. She takes one hit of theContinue reading “Blunt Ride”

Sex Stories

Don’t tell me your sex stories with flowers, because I know that it’s bullshit. Tell me what it was like that one time you both got drunk and she burped in your mouth after she took off her shirt, but you kissed her anyway so she wouldn’t feel embarrassed. Tell me how you tried andContinue reading “Sex Stories”

Rain

I like to listen to Alice in Chains when it rains, and watch the water run sideways across my window. Really down in a fucking hole. Stuck thinking about a million different things that I can’t control or change. Makes me feel insane, or at least slightly unstable, even though I know that eventually theContinue reading “Rain”

Tired

Drinking coffee, reading a Steinbeck classic, watching the rain puddle in the grass and listening to a Colter Wall ballad, I don’t feel like myself this morning. Not hungover, not high, not even horny enough to masturbate. Just quiet and tired and waiting to wake up. Maybe it would be better if I didn’t. DEADContinue reading “Tired”

Lottery Ticket

She told me that I shouldn’t spend my last ten bucks on a lottery ticket. I said, “fuck that.” And then I spent my last ten bucks on a lottery ticket. She called me stupid. I called her a cunt. Then I scratched off the ticket. “Ha!” I yelled, and I shoved the ticket inContinue reading “Lottery Ticket”