I know now that I have always dreaded that name. Mary, an embalmed name, like a brooding English queen or a dour old maid who corrals the schoolchildren in the courtyard. Or Mary, disgusting white trash: Appalachian royalty, Camel Crush and baby bump. It is an evil name, a darkly silent sprawl for thousands of acres...

Many thoughts pass me by every day. I picture myself standing on my knees in the ocean, letting each idea race down my salty skin and return to the great depths; then I slink triumphantly to the shore and leave no trace of the water on my shiny, sunny self. This is the ideal. In fact, I am millions of miles from th...

Summer simmers like the cicada's heartbeat
Spiky stickers tag along on a cuffed bootcut
Follows you into the tall grass and dizzied sunflowers.
Weighted with the branding of a seared seatbelt and
Fuming on dry tobacco behind a screen.

In summertime we slither along matted carpet and ho...