Gone was the Day

The sounds of a psychopath echo in sleep.
A turnout like crying fathers or
many suicidal thoughts hijacking the brain.

In a plot of grass, amongst the city,
an Oak tree has been growing.
For years it has witnessed
the neighborhood mutate.

The poor have been shifted west
with no sun to rise.
Single family homes have been erected,
flowers hidden behind fences.

Beer bottles and needles were the landscape.
Painted like two dollar hookers,
open fire hydrants in the summertime.

Paul Newman (1925-2008)

Well, one of my favorite actors, Paul Newman, passed away. Some of his best work, in my opinion are. The Sting, The Hustler, Hud, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Road to Perdition, and two of my all-time favorite movies Slap Shot and Cool Hand Luke.

It Could Be Cancer

I drove from the parking lot of Saint Augustine’s,
cigarette lit and a weird lump
where my throat meets my chin.

Paperwork to my right,
a joint waiting for me at home.

The Who acts as a far away navigator,
providing measured coordinates and

the instinct to roam.

Some would clean the chamber,
wait for a loud surprise, but

what happens in one’s mind
has skipped mine.

I stop in at Pepe’s Liquor for a case of Old Style.

Half-way home now,
I think about the concrete patio.
An old wooden rocker will swish the beer
from front to back like

a racist bus driver dictating people’s seats.

The place where this feeling will hide
behind cold buzz, the thought

that it can’t be time.

Steve Schofield Photos

George Saunders Reads "Bohemians," Part 1

George Saunders Reads "Bohemians," Part 2

David Foster Wallace (February 21, 1962 – September 12, 2008)

Well, as many of you probably already have heard, David Foster Wallace (Infinite Jest, A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, The Broom of the System) committed suicide last Friday at the age of 46.

John Waters - Play Date

These two pieces from John Waters (yes, that John Waters) ask the question, Would these two men have turned the way they have if they would have had a play date? We will never know.

Update

Well, I have been in Submitting Mode for the past couple of weeks. So, there hasn't been much writing of late. Just been sweating out the Cubs and their downslide during the last month of the Baseball season, getting ready for iffy seasons from the Bears and Notre Dame. Oh well, they both got wins over the weekend.

In other news, Bonnie Jo Campell is interviewed on the Kenyon Review site (www.kenyonreview.org) and her story "Boar Taint" was published by them.