I just blew a bunch of job or job prospects. Not meaning to blow them or maybe really meaning to blow them. I am being stalked by someone in the unemployment office who keeps screwing up my unemployment extension by rolling new boulders into my path, forcing me to go into… Read full post »

Dear Santa Claus

I have been sending resumes and letters and queries out via mostly internet but I also attend job fairs and networking "parties" (party is a loose term, mind you), every day! Every day! (that bears repeating!) I figured out today that rather than use that well worn "black… Read full post »

Not to mention

A pragmatic, civilized attitude

"don't make me a god"

does religion mean

I live respectfully

responsibly

or does it mean

that something happens

when I cease being?   Read full post »

I was considered a slut all through my late teens and my entire 20's. I went to bed with men I thought I wanted to fuck, I allowed men to fuck me that I didn't love or even like, I had low self esteem and I was always trying… Read full post »

The turning point came when I no long wanted to 

please anyone any longer when I became a self absorbed

adolescent at the age of 62 and felt proud of it!

when I realized that racism has nothing to with what race you are

or where you've come from

that the… Read full post »

My youngest child and I have a terrible relationship right now. It hasn't been good for a long time, but lately we have simply stopped relating altogether, except for a few family gatherings where she routinely rips me apart verbally, critisizing me, my writing, my life, my essential self. She… Read full post »

For rent

I have taken the liberty
to tell you the truth about yourself
in a kind of brutal, tactless
way

and about which you probably don't
give a shit because that's the way
you acted when I gave you my
unncessary apology
because after all

it was the truth, I suppose.
But am I perfect?

Forgive me--I am not.
bu… Read full post »

I have taken the liberty
to tell you the truth about yourself
in a kind of brutal, tactless
way

and about which you probably don't
give a shit because that's the way
you acted when I gave you my
unncessary apology
because after all

it was the truth, I suppose.
But am I perfect?

Forgive me--I am not.
bu… Read full post »

Please tune into my story at:

http://www.fictioncollective.blogspot.com/ 

 on Valentine's Day February 14. My story Craig: List Me will be up for a week starting then.

This is the same site that nominated my story Train Wreck for a Pushcart Prize. I have 5 other stories on the site.

Happy R… Read full post »

1. 

When I was small

and you were still daddy

there was a knife in

the drawer.

Though you never pulled

it out

I was afraid of mother--

she knew it was

there too

and I think she did

pull it out

once or twice

that knife… Read full post »

My story "Train Wreck" which can be read at:

www.fictioncollective.blogspot.com

has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Check it out on the blog site.

Poet 

  Read full post »

When you are young it all stretches out before you.
Death is a shadow, and even when it comes close, you can always say,"it's not me."
When you are old it all stretches out behind you.
Death is your companion, you take daily walks together and admire the shadows of life.
Yesterday,when… Read full post »

I know there are plenty of people who love this "big hearted" city in the midwest. The lake! O! (I mean Oprah) the "miracle mile" which is a mile long testament to Capitalism and the Power of the Oligarchy and How The American Ruling Class can shame the rest of us… Read full post »

My 2nd Story will be at the top of the blog TODAY! (July 13)

http://fictioncollective.blogspot.com

 It is entitled "Terrorism." Happy Reading!

Meanwhile, my latest poem:

for Pablo Neruda:

Yesterday there was
love like a burden
or a bird.
It flew so high the
sun singed its wings
and I fell to ear… Read full post »

Your poet has a short story on line. Please check it out!

 http://fictioncollective.blogspot.com/

Happy Reading.

Poet of Logan Square

  Read full post »

I posted a blog recently about my struggles to teach James Joyce to my students where I teach. I got an answer from someone who joined OS just to respond to my blog, accusing me of racism, elitism and imperialism, which, if that person had gone back and read my older… Read full post »

Chicago is on (in?) the arctic stream, my son told me in an email, answering my previous one comparing New York temperatures with Chicago temperatures. New York is often ten degrees warmer and a lot more exciting as far as I am concerned, but excitement is not what gets you outside… Read full post »

I haven't posted since quite some time. I've been immersed in my own private kind of death. There is some life--I see  green shoots sprouting up here and there. Some days I even think this might be the best time of my life and I have so… Read full post »

                                                   &… Read full post »

I deleted the previous post.

It was just too damn negative and depressing.

And anyway, it's both true and not true.

Fact is, I have hit bottom. The past 3 years I've gone from bottom to one inch above bottom back to bottom again and again and again.

Eventually one… Read full post »

My stepmother once said to me, a while back, when I was 40 pounds lighter and hot looking, "Gee I wish you'd find a guy.." and I told her, yeah, but all I attract are losers. I want an Alpha Male--you know? A guy who has something going for him! And… Read full post »

To the New Year Gods:

• I promise to be better in 2010, whatever that means.

• I promise not to sink into total self pity more than 1 hour a week (yeah right)
• I promise to chip away at the 3 novels I am working on
• I promise not to blame
… Read full post »

This post will be short. For the time being the Bed Bug Guy came and inspected thoroughly and it looks as though the itching and scratching could be a normal psychosomatic reaction to my experience, and the black flecks on my bed are pieces of lint and dust from my socks.… Read full post »