It’s a tiny piece of paper; a scrap from a time of Texas bills, transmogrified into packing material two years ago. A slip that snuck, across state lines, a tiny cling; now resting on the floor of my car. I’ve moved too much, and in the last one, ended up apart from my things, in [...]

Searching for something else, I found this piece, which I believe was deleted from my blog in the mysterious blog purge of depressed laid-off posts. It republishes today, almost a year later, in a year without things. WASHINGTON, D.C., August 18, 2007 The unemployed know this – how the days can creep by, you, reading [...]

WASHINGTON, DC, July 19, 2007 My eyeballs hurt. My sockets are weary. I stare at my computer so long that my vision develops mirage spots … swervy spots that look like moisture evaporating off hot concrete. Sometimes, I get so I can’t read … the lines run together. On the metro, my eyes hurt; reading [...]

COLUMBIA HEIGHTS, Washington, DC, June 20, 2007 Pandemonium. Lights flashing, a spiral of screaming, hysterical phone calls, a flash fire – combustible Columbia Heights – ignited. It was a war zone, ground zero – not a neighborhood, not even anything physical – hate.rage.fear.heat, low hanging, oppressive smoldering chemicals, waiting for the spark, flash point fire. [...]

COLUMBIA HEIGHTS, WASHINGTON, DC, June 10, 2007 I leave the light on, sometimes. When there’s a mouse in the house, or a six-legged scurry. I don’t actually think that the light keeps the vermin away, but it helps, when I wake with a start in the middle of the night – to be able to [...]

WASHINGTON, DC, June 7, 2007 The shots rang out, staccato. Four, in rapid succession. DC’s Columbia Heights is a neighborhood of many noises: firecracker cackle, urgent sirens, basketball bounce, slow-fast-slow cadences – many noises, yes, but the sound of a gun is unmistakable. Clear. Certain. Four shots – one tunneling into the arm of a [...]

WASHINGTON, DC, May 23, 2007 Her steps were jagged; harsh crisscrosses on uneven pavement, the too-fluid jangle of hep in her veins. She wore tight black jeans, and a tank, with a Michael Jackson-style fedora bent and tilted over one eye, fake diamond in her nose collecting DC sun, looking down with off-rhythm cadence: “Excuse [...]

WASHINGTON, DC, May 17, 2007 Angie and I heard the snap! The snap of victory – for the kinda awesome-looking wooden mousetraps, laden with chunky Skippy and emblazoned ‘Victory’ 40s style. But the snap of victory meant the snap of a neck, for the furry vermin I’d seen scampering in the kitchen just moments before. [...]

WASHINGTON, DC, April 17, 2007 So I did it – I’m now a denizen of no state – a DC resident, one of the few, broke and proud, in 68.3 sq mi (177.0 km²) of con(per)verted swampland. I surrendered my Georgia identity but not my fake accent, to join the half-million representation-less in the murky [...]

WASHINGTON, DC, April 15, 2007 Saturday morning found me heavy; head still thick of Friday’s Shiner Bock. The last thing I wanted to do was get up, but I did – up and out, still smoky in last night’s clothes. I’d gone to the Black Cat to see the Junior Boys the night before, and [...]