Rock Solid Art

The greatest art installation in America currently resides on a telephone pole a couple of blocks from my house. I discovered it on one of those long, aimless walks we all take now. Dogs have learned that what they believed … Continued

Pandemic Definitions

Social Distancing: Crossing to the other side of the street when approached by anyone, instead of just black or brown people. Toilet Paper: A mythical object once believed to exist in plenty, but hunted to extinction like the carrier pigeon. Sober: The … Continued

bible-belted: the pandemic series

bible-belted: pandemic one why are tanning booths & beauty salons open? an exquisite corpse. bible-belted: pandemic two on south beach, millennials drink and frolic. boomers aren’t worthy of attention. bible-belted: pandemic three at a local hospital, sixty-five year olds are … Continued

The Unpredictable Fluid of Time

Unlike predictable, protest-board-applicable-things this uncaged boomerang returns the plague. Barbs jut in the neck of a dozen deserving men. The difficult decision is to stay the course or stay alive. Let’s lock onto the horizon, see that (from this embankment) … Continued

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Pandemic

I Wallace Stevens published the poem “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” in 1917. The poem references Connecticut, where Stevens would hunker down as an insurance executive for the rest of his life, handling lawsuits from rejected claims. What … Continued

The Solace of Syrup

I  have need of pancakes, which is to say I have need of a Syrup Delivery System. Not even the Village Inn can botch a short stack, so I head up the street to the one near my house. Carbs … Continued

Skin of Memory

All that is left of you are words Words you turned into colors Colors you scattered across pages Of your abbreviated life. Shades of Blue:             For tears shed by angsty adolescent daughter     … Continued

Rant Delivery

The Rant has a small sample size, but here in Tulsa at the worldwide headquarters, the new Amazon delivery kids seem to really be scrapping. One of our favorite pastimes is following a truck as it wanders helplessly around the … Continued

Night And Day (Ночь И День)

Life has become better, comrades. Life has become more cheerful.  Joseph Stalin In the old days under Stalin they’d arrest you in the midnight hours of indifference, throw you into a concrete room lit by a bare bulb where questions … Continued

Pass the Rant

The Rant received an email from God. The subject line informed us that Jesus Smoked Weed. The gist was the Lord wanted us to go thou and do likewise. So many questions. First, doesn’t God seem like more of an … Continued