I found myself drawn to grids mostly because they were manageable. You can write your way out of one as soon as easily as you write your way in. Grids are safe, incubators for words and ideas to sit, like plastic-wrapped photo frames, or little cardboard boxes filled with styrofoam peanuts, keeping the hallowed words […]
Autumn is blazing in San Francisco; its fiery oaks defy the growing chill. I am biking the Wiggle, the well-known route from Market St to Golden Gate Park that all cyclists here know. It is the kind of route that is knowingly passed down from generation to generation by oral tradition; the route is now […]
I dreamt the other night that I was running at midnight along the shore, no, there were cliffs, and we were running along the cliffs that wrap around the coast. The weather is warm, no, it has an icy bite, but we run anyways, out and around the shore, through silhouetted tree branches that bend […]
I have discovered you cannot properly grieve in a city; it won’t give you a damn second to be alone. I’d like to have a moment of silence in an alleyway, behind the dumpster, over the beggar-man, to the cacophony of car horns and ice cream carousel jingles. No dice. The city clamors, roars, and […]
Sunday, I get a call from Mike. “Hey Drew, listen I gotta talk to you man,” he starts. But this time, his voice is different: wearier, on eggshells. “I’m at Alta Bates right now. My brother Wayne’s in the hospital. He’s on his way out.” “Oh, my God. What happened?” “He’s got an infection, and it’s been […]
I have never felt so small, standing under the African sky. I wish you could be here to see it; sprawling diamonds falling out of the Milky Way, meteors arcing overhead over staccato lightning beats. Bolts. This moment feels like a memory, déjà vu reversed again. Tomorrow, I will wake early and have coffee. Tonight, […]
See more of my Shanghai photos » I am at the clothes market on Christmas Eve, trying hard not to feel foolish. It is difficult because 1) I have terrible Mandarin abilities and 2) I’m really not that interested in buying anything. The vendors believe otherwise, convinced I’m playing games with them. “Come on,” […]
“Listen, Drew” Mike tells me, “They cut off my general assistance a long time ago. I got no money to pay the phone bill.” We’re standing in front of the ghetto again, and Mike’s pacing back in forth in front of his milk crate. He rattles off a long list of errands he’s got to […]
With a City like this, calamities are bound to happen. A elderly man slips down a narrow stairwell and dislocates his hip. Sirens interrupt throngs of hungry shoppers as two ladder trucks rush down the Market. A red-headed biker caroms off a distracted SUV, and snaps his collarbone. Blaring phones put 911 operators on edge. […]
