The Coming Week in History

That’s really my name.

You self-congratulating fuck.

What are you talking about?

I’m going to ask you one more time. Where is the detonator?

Detonator? Is that what this is about?

The power goes out. And Bobby is in the shower. Falcon Crest careens off into another universe.

It’s not even 11 pm. I have scabs on my left forearm where there used to be cuts and abrasions. And before that, my arm drags across the pavement as my jacket, then shirt frays. Sometime later, I pick out gravel and broken glass.

Yes, I filed a report. No, I didn’t get the license number. Yes, I was wearing a helmet. Yes, the bike is a mess. Yes, I’m going to get another and no. Before you ask. No. No, I’m not going to talk to him. All right. All right, good luck with it, then. Tell Helen I said hi. Love you, too. Bye.

Transient town of transient people. Except for the leeches and the rats. The vampires. Those are all metaphors.

Been walking to work lately. Getting in early to beat rush hour. The stockroom is the most organized it’s been in years, Danny says. And behind the bar is fucking spotless. Unnervingly so.

Seeing your reflection in the shelves when you reach for a glass catches you off guard. Nobody said anything, but tips went down. It wasn’t the economy. So I scuffed up the shelves. Tips started getting better again. Skirts started getting shorter ahead of the season. But I think that may have been the 60s revival going around.

That was when Jenny got her hair cut. And dyed. And started wearing those shoes. My accident was barely a scar. I think she missed it – we’d started hanging out a few days after I got hurt. Jenny had this theory about bad luck.


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Wrote a draft of this long-hand (remember writing by hand?) back on September 14, 2008. Started messing with it again a few weeks ago. Funny how typing something up inevitably opens new ways of looking at the same thing.

Aside: note sure if I'm going to try and take on the poem-a-day for April or not... and not sure if I'd take that on here or make a separate blog for it... that worked well for me when I did Our Daily May a couple years back.