CITY OF DUST

I was dining--alone, as I now always did--at the Pink Adobe in Santa Fe. I’d heard that Sam Shepard ate there regularly when he was living...

Shelly and I are at the Waffle House. It’s early and we’ve been up all night. There are a number of reasons why we haven't slept. All...

Well, as seems to happen with some degree of regularity, City of Dust is going to go on hiatus. Someday my life may actually contain some ...

"Happy is the city which in time of peace thinks of war." Ancient inscription in the armoury of the common-wealth of Venice, Ita...

I managed to scrounge up enough material on Fort Jackson, an important Civil War fortress 65 miles south of New Orleans, to actually do a ...

This night is unwelcome. The wind has risen, the sun has set too soon. Beyond the window, black birds are gathering in the tree tops. The ...

South of the Twin Cities, in Hastings, Minnesota, USA, not far from the Mississippi River, is this dry prairie, or sand coulee, if you wan...

Canal Park/Lake Superior, Duluth, Minnesota, USA; August 28, 2005; Afternoon. Mouth of Brule River/Lake Superior, Wisconsin, USA; June ...

The couple next door—that’s room 6—is fighting again. I’ve been here two and a half weeks, three more days than they have, and have grown ...

It's been awhile. The past month has seen one trip to Urgent Care, dozens of games of Surfin' Safari pinball played, thousands of ...

( CONTINUED ): When I stopped by the trailer I saw it'd been empty for some time. Weeds were grown-up in the yard, a rusted wagon that...

My mama’s name was Mary and my pa’s was Joseph, but I don’t believe my conception would’ve been immaculate. When I think about it, I imagi...

I've developed a pilonidal cyst . I'll spare you the gory details, but part of my treatment is soaking in warm water and trying to...

It’s nearly dusk and the sand makes it difficult to walk. You don’t know where you are. The mosquitoes swarm and you slap at them blindly,...

Las Vegas, Nevada: 117 degrees F. Death Valley, California: 129 degrees F. My old home, Augusta, Georgia: 100 degrees F (heat index=110). ...