And I’ll take any risk to tie back the hands of time And stay with you here tonight –From Styx, 1981 Tonight, we stole away to a small Oklahoma City restaurant, Cheever’s, that some would say was in the ghetto. This is exactly what makes it a destination, and so painfully trendy. But, this is […]
Shopping Thrift Stores During the 1980s
My thrift store adventures began in 1975 at the downtown Goodwill in Colorado Springs. My father took me often where I found many wonderful treasures, many of which annoyed my mom. My dad would buy me dirty teddy bears and dolls with matted hair. Whatever piece of junk I couldn’t bear to leave behind. Just […]
There But For The Grace of God Go I
Morning comes to this city vacant of you. Pages and windows flare, and you are not there. Someone sweeps his portion of sidewalk, Wakens the drunk, slumped like laundry, and you are gone. –From Li Young Lee’s City in Which I Love You The other night, I went out for drive, like my father once […]
Desperately Seeking Long Lost Friend Eddi
Now we went walking in the rain Talking about the pain from the world we hid Now there ain’t nobody nowhere nohow Gonna ever understand me the way you did –From Springsteen’s Bobby Jean (1984) Like the bored suburban housewife Roberta who was fascinated with the life of Susan in Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), I […]
Letters From My Father
I did the unthinkable today. I went down to the basement and brought up a large bin of letters my father wrote me after I left home for college. I sat on the couch and opened it up and began to read some of the letters. Then, I remembered why this box more than any […]
A Poem by my Father: Rubáiyát of a Sailor©
Today, my father is 78 years old. He lives in a nursing home. It sucks. He has Alzheimer’s Disease. It sucks, too. He was once a boxer, sometimes a sailor, sometimes a preacher, always a Texan, always a Democrat and ALWAYS a poet. My father, July 1956 Who gives a damn–this vessel of today On […]
Searching for Eddi
I’ve been searching for my long lost friend Eddi, my best friend from 6th grade, for longer than I can remember. I spent one of the best nights of my life with Eddi. I was 11, she was 12, and it was Halloween night 1979. We roamed the streets of Ozark together, bounding frightened through […]