After tonight, I’ll be demoted to my parents’ couch and a job at my uncle’s lumberyard.

Everyone was welcome. No one was cut 
in this league.

In 1974 or 1975 my father took my sisters and me to our first baseball game. It was always going to be a Yankee game, wherever that might be.

You cannot think of baseball without thinking of your grandpa. The two forever tangled in each’s DNA.

I practically worship, use
to fill an empty life.

The wonderful thing about teenagers — which is what he is now — is that they are very focused on their own lives and not the least bit interested in what their parents are up to.

Later that evening, Ken Caminiti died alone in a bug infested Bronx drug house.

Then maybe head over to the State Park near Orange City to rent a canoe and paddle gator-infested waters, strafed by black vultures and large, fictional-looking birds, for the chance to see some manatees, large and stationary in the gentle current of a warm, clear river. 

“I’ll be right up,” I said, seeking the comfort of the remaining parental arms. But no, he told me, “wait until morning.”

It tasted like apple cider — apple and something astringent — cinnamon, a strong cinnamon, warming, brown sugar, and sprinkled throughout the loaf, unadvertised, was some kind of dried fruit with a mild taste — raisins, probably — partially rehydrated by the thawing process.

Evan, in a cheap hotel room...

My mother and father are stuck in an optic deadlock, her looking at him like she is trying to solve a puzzle or remember the name of a particular film, him looking like he’s just deciphered answers to both.

Mike and I sat in our separate seats and waved to each other. I’d texted him the night before and asked “Wanna see Don Giovanni tomorrow... more

When I clock out at the end of the night my chit says I worked over 10 hours. Before I leave big brother tells me he has a great idea: walk like you need to get to the toilet. I see chef in line at a McDonalds. 

"Whipped" and "Kansas"

I’m on a date with this dude, the guy’s gorgeous, and ripped, skin all sunburnt like a surfer with... more

You elaborate: Christmas just makes people emotional. "No," she says, raking at her hair with French-tipped nails. "I don't think so."

We are intrepid travellers hunting – or rather haunting – the square. We are exhausting the place of its details.

We are fifteen as haev no idea
what our bodies can do...

Scream and jump out, I said, watching us slide toward the water, letting the safety belt hold me in place.

We’re riding the red line south when Xue suggests stopping in Chinatown to purchase thousand-year eggs. I picture her... more

In the dark before sleep...

One house had a parrot that never stopped talking.

Also, every time they flew and he had that damn backpack on, he forgot that the space he occupied extended beyond his physical back. He whacked bystanders in the shoulders or the chest, and, at least once, the face.

get a tattoo of a horse
because you feel good about yourself