Full Blue Moon Dementia

“I’m a liar. I’ll rip your mind up. I’ll burn your soul, I’ll turn you in to me.” —Henry Rollins The local Florida news reporter was wandering the sparsely filled hallways of the Conservative Political Action Conference gleaning the right-wing attendees for sound bites and homespun southern “wisdom.” A large splotchy pink and white-faced woman...

I’ve been on hold for over an hour involuntarily listening to some unidentifiable muzak loop, droning over the speaker phone, interrupted every twenty seconds by an automated voice telling me I could be doing this online. Which feels both patronizing and torturous as I did do everything online only to have EDD mail me a...

My voice has left me. There’s paralysis in the muscles and nerves of my left vocal cord. For now all I can manage is a hoarse whisper and depending on what doctor I consult I’m not even supposed to do that. I’m on a heavy régime of Nimodipine; a class of medication called calcium channel...

Or, How to Start a Class War In Five Easy To Follow Steps  A little over two weeks ago, much like everyone else in the entire world, I watched a surging mass of militant yahoos, conspiracy zealots, off duty police and military personnel, angry white people, and a heaping helping of trailer park trash assault...

Every year I write a “gratitude” post that usually focuses on those I love, my family, my clean time, my writing, work, and what had transpired over the previous year that got me here—all of which I am extremely grateful for. But with this unpredictable insane year I don’t even know where, or what, or...

“Sore throat, cough, fever, chills, diarrhea?” The doctor peers out from behind a clear plastic face shield and ticks off one more question. “Been around anyone that’s sick?” I’ve already answered all of these questions the first time they were asked. That’s what got me shoved into the “this sick fuck has possibly got covid”...

Its 3am. I’ve been awake for hours. Watching TV and chewing melatonin like breath mints. Outside the full moon is in a penumbral eclipse, casting its lunar spells and turning tides away. In the distance a train blasts its horn. I imagine a locomotive pulling a hundred cars chugging away on the desolate tracks by...

  This piece was originally written in 2007.   7:30pm, the sun is setting. A passing siren breaks the silence. Outside, the wolf pack howls. Sitting on the floor of the warehouse, my mind wanders to the paper I’m supposed to be writing. I hear another siren approach. “Big fire,” I think, and then the...

    I wrote this piece in November of 2004. Just short of 3 years clean off drugs. I lived in San Francisco and worked in a rehab. I was afraid to re-enter life. I’d been getting high for so long I didn’t know how to live without drugs. The world around me was new...