David Roderick and the good folks at SF Chronicle very nicely published a poem from my new book. Bakersfield, was my first attempt at paying tribute to the family road trips we used to take every summer in the late 70’s, early 80’s. Those memories, what’s left of them, are of a pre-strip-malled, pre-Star*ucked America. A flat landscape glowing at night with lightning and Drive-In theaters. I wanted to write my feelings about Los Angeles, Yuma, Arizona, Texarkana, Texas, Stamford, Texas… All our little towns that bore relatives. I wrote Bakersfield and stopped for years, though I’ve eventually covered those towns and roads and rivers, there’s still more to be mined.
The Dirty Rat 