Interstate 40 runs a long way across the United States and it bisects Tennessee from west to east, from Memphis on one end to Knoxville on the other. The distance between those two cities is roughly 380 miles, and Nashville sits in between, the Vanderbilt radius to the Volunteer diameter.
There are many signs as you [...]
The idea of stomping on the terra is new for the old guard, and the kids who have started to climb the masts and run the boats have the look of new cops at a riot. They are hungry for violence and feel the rhythm of a yet-begun protracted battle thrumming in their veins.
I.
In Grapevine at a big resort
they had Christmas lights
on public display,
and a show about Ice
you could pay
$30 to see.
We took pictures and saw
the lights and then
we drove home.
Then I stood in the kitchen
and I looked in my freezer
all for free.
(USA! USA! USA!)
II.
Welcome to 2009!
Like you, I spent
New Year’s Eve
with friends, telling
stories and drinking champagne
and kissing [...]
(I wrote this years ago, and it represents what my poetry style has turned into. I almost said ‘evolved into’ but even I don’t take myself seriously enough for that.)
I.
When we lived on Bolivar
every neighbor we had was crazy
just like now but less noisy.
One lady saw me putting up Christmas lights
in late November and asked [...]
(Originally published in Boston’s Weekly Dig. This is a revised version.)
Recently, I learned a hard lesson. A lesson about boundaries. A lesson, even, about interpersonal communications. A lesson about the dick you can’t take back.
I’m an academic – a political scientist – so I spend a lot of time hanging around with professor types. These [...]