Vertical Prose

a friend offered to take me to Sandy Hook today
I spent last night at his house
we left early (for me) this morning...
driving along
conversations
traffic got really snarled up
and then a light was blinking on his dash
I looked it up in the book
it said "transmission malfunction"
then the speedometer stopped working
and at a stoplight in Atlantic Highlands
the car quit

won't start again
was stuck in park
with a bull-goon cop yelling at us
mocking me for looking through the manual
I figured out how to shift it to neutral and ge pushed us into the
parking lot

checked the fluid levels
Fine

1992 Honda
just tired.

I walked in to was my hands
on the No Smoking sign
23

there is a ferry dock that goes to the beach in walking distance from
here

so
now I'm sitting in the back of a wrecker heading back to the city


I made a joke about how I don't like being in cars
coz it reminds of my childhood
which was spent entirely in cars
... the pains of then...


but I wasn't anxious for this to happen

sorry I'm missing swimming in the ocean though...


.iP

and now the wrecker is breaking down:
taking a few minutes to accelerate to 50mph

almost there


.iP

as soon as we came out the Lincoln tunnel (coz they wouldn't let us
trough the Holland)
I got out of the car to walk

yes
yes
I like walking
I don't like cars.

i got homeand felt un-deniably exhausted
so lay down on my day bed
and fell asleep

dreamt of Stephen Merritt playing on the subway
with Seth? or Daniel Freeman?

i was working in an old house
tearing stuff down
-framing out a new room
the back door open
onto a green field, forest on the edge
and there was my sister
and Stephen playing "Lonely Highway"

the subway rumbling

the boss was coming
and i went to hide
and everything went sideways

i realized i was dreaming
and turned and turned in late afternoon nap sweat
the heat of the summer
but i couldn't bring myself to go pick raspberries today

now
some pullups and pushups
now
off to a client
cancelled the other
spend the night with a friend
and...
going to the beach tomorrow.