If you were like me, you spent a lot of time reading poetry in college. And you may have, like me, memorized and analyzed the hell out of a Wallace Stevens poem called “Thirteen Way of Looking at a Blackbird.” What’s that? You didn’t? Hm. Well, this isn’t about you, is it? Is today YOUR [...]

Gertrude and I are walking down Pacific Avenue together, talking of this and that. Suddenly I grab her arm and pull her close. “Don’t look now, but your boyfriend is standing on the corner,” I hiss. She looks, and there he is, a magnificent masculine specimen. He’s wearing a tie-dyed tank top and grubby khaki [...]