Injury and Resilience: On the Virtues of Physical Consequence
byAnd if California slides into the ocean Like the mystics and statistics say it will I predict this motel will be standing Until I pay my bill. —Warren Zevon …
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Never Break Kayfabe
byI GREW UP A HULKAMANIAC. I would get my dad to buy me his cereal from the dollar store, and I did my best to follow the four demandments—I trained,…
I’ll Meet You There
byLIKE MOST THIRTY-SOMETHINGS WORKING AT HOME, ALONE, DURING THE PANDEMIC, I frequently found myself scanning dog adoption websites. Among the most common names I’d see in Massachusetts shelters: Mookie. Among…
The Field
byJUST AHEAD IS THE FAMILIAR FIELD, A DIAMOND WITH ROUNDED CORNERS. I walk up with head down, anticipating that time will drag its feet while I sit and wish I…
On the Poetry (and Promise) of Chuck and Jimmy
byThey think they always have the same conversation set to a similar tempo. Conversations often a blend of propositions and positioning. Even so, I learn something new with each reading,…
Radiation Therapy and You
byAFTER HE MAPPED AND TATTOOED ME, Bill gave me a pamphlet titled Radiation Therapy and You. It was less than thirty pages long with large print, so I read the…
Billy Walker, Hero
bySEVENTEEN-YEAR-OLD BILLY WALKER, driving home from bagging at Win-Dixie, eases his beat-up Kia through cackling pea-sized hail on State Road 40, right outside Ocala, on the rim of the national…
Witnessed Through a Windowpane
byTHE SUN SETS LACKADAISICALLY LIKE MOLASSES ON HOT SUMMER NIGHTS. Sometimes there is a soft breeze that pushes the pieces of trash across the parking lot, lightly scraping the pavement….
August Cherries
byON THE SUN-SOAKED HILL’S OF APRIL’S CALIFORNIA, I remember the way November’s New York air ripped through her. *** The last day I see her the city lies frozen over,…
The Waster
by1. TWENTY MINUTES INTO WHAT THE HISTORY MAJOR’S DATE—her mother’s friend’s son—had referred to as “the film about lesbians,” a man who’d been sitting at the end of the front…