At the time, he’s sick of it, the heavinesssettling in his shadow limbs. All those nightsmixing with the same old spirits in New Orleans,or rattling chains in windowless European castles.He’s tired of strangers who call themselves expertson him, then walk through his body on the stairscall out with cold hearted threats. So the Shadow Man…
Tag: Travel
The Train Journey
The journey was peaceful. I closed my eyes most of the way, sat back and thought of all the wonderful things I had done that day. When I opened my eyes the frost was settling on the fields and trees, and the other passengers were either asleep, reading, or eating. When I got to the…
Anglesey
We sleep with most of our clothes on: tired, drunk, unsure of undressing in front of each other again, but it’s too hot. I’m too hot. “You said you’d go through with this,” he says. I did say it. I agreed, because I’m convinced if he said jump, I’d land on my feet. But the…
Torque
A dishevelled man placed his palmon my son’s head and said“Hello, Mason.”We were on the number 8 bus.We had never seen this man before.The sky was the exact greyof the seats we were sitting on. My son looked up at meand I could see a white-hot wireglowing behind his eyes.I said “He must have heard…
Siberia
Eleven days after my husband died, he telephoned me at dawn. “I can barely hear you,” I said, sitting up in bed. “Somewhere in Siberia,” he whispered. His notebook was still on his side of the bed. I wrote in the half-light. The directions were incredibly complicated. I had to ask him to repeat himself…
When This Train Comes
When this train comes crashingIt’s okay cause I’ve got Je-sus The lights flickerAnd go dead There’s a woman reading the PsalmsWe’re under 100 millionTons of water, Under 100 hundred million gallons of the Hudson The lights have gone offBut she’s still gripping her bibleIn both hands like it’ll be her phoenixLike it’ll point its nose…
A Memory
I saw a car-wreck while crossing the Mojave Desert one oven-summer twilight before I was old. It shut down a four-lane highway, eastbound and west; twisted metal sank into sand between black shrubs and the Wile-E-Coyote orange rock backdrop. I was touring with a testosterone punk-band back then; tattooed Californians who only surfed at night….