The Border Wall of Sadness

The Border Wall of Sadness

It’s a touted local attraction—Hobo Hot Springs—peeling paint, faded sign, the steps leading into the pool slimed in green. In the changing room, a woman from eight miles down the road strips off her XXL stretch pants and faded cotton panties without shame, as she...
MCO

MCO

Photo: VIAVAL TOURS / Shutterstock.com Mayor Buddy Dyer welcomes meback to the City Beautiful, the city magical, mythical, the fantasy land, town of scientific marvels& facade; but the gateway to thehappiest place on Earth still feels like high school suicide to...
You Ain’t Shit

You Ain’t Shit

You ain’t shit North Dakota – you’re all snow and flat and forever horizon. You fly-over state. You MAGA hat, Fox News junkie.The year I left it snowed on June 1st. June 1st you motherfucker.Can’t bury the dead in a North Dakota winter unless you bonfire first.My 18th...
Hiraeth in California

Hiraeth in California

Photo by Mike Towber, Some rights reserved.  for Michael Wells You tell me a staircase that leads to nowhere is your recurring dream just moments before you teach me the Welsh word hiraeth, and it’s as if you’ve used a magic spell: I now have that intense homesickness...
Grandview

Grandview

Photo by Christy Lorio I could have stayed my ass at home, but I didn’t. It was a chemo week and I had already purchased a back country permit months ago and planned out this Grand Canyon overnight camping trip at Horseshoe Mesa, about three miles down the Grandview...
Under the Waterfall

Under the Waterfall

for Mary For fear of polio, as a child,I’d been made to wear a bathing cap,not allowed to get hair wet as I swam. But now here we were: Behind us a cliff,and before us water cascading down,an in-between space,like dusk or dawn. This was not a celebrated waterfall.And...