Contents
The Observable Characteristics of Organisms
The Storm
Canto
Item
Lollipop Lane
Carl Jung Buys Beans
Dial 7 for Roberto
The Sun
CHiPS
The End
The Professor, His Pupil, and His Puppy Pickle
It Is My Understanding
Stuck
Girl, Makes Sense to Me
Norman Mailer
The Turning of Events
Urgebirge
Predation
Shifting and Plummeting
“Tell Me with Whom You Walk and I Will Tell You Who You Are”
She Thought
“Since We Are Lost, Let’s Go to the River”
Blow the Man Down
In the Mud, in Her Arms
It’s Only a Matter of Time
To Be Read Aloud with a Lisp
The Scapegoat
Appropriately Hungry
Charles and Rita
Dutch
So That’s There?
Wild Ass
Quality Time
The Hole
Wakefield
Blue River Road
Dead Skunk
Retirement Is a Flamingo Pond
TV
January
A Small Death
My Head Is a Punch Bowl
Preggos
The Burial
The Recent Local Phenomenon
My Novel
The Beast
Sponsorship
A Handful
Road Trip
Sally
I No Longer Need Him
Frozen Dinner
The Punishment
There Is a House There
When I’m Feeling Up to It
Brass Tacks
I Am a Natural Wonder
Redolent Son
Into the Woods
A Confluence of Occurrences
Altered Beast
Another Day at the A&P
My Friend’s Father
Acknowledgments