That evening the phone rang. It was Mercedes. I had met her after giving a poetry reading at Venice Beach. She was about 28, fair body, pretty good legs, a blonde about 5~feet-5, a blue...

the lilies storm my brain by god by god like nazi storm troopers! do you think I’m going tizzy?

They are building a house half a block down and I sit up here with the shades down listening to the sounds,

at exactly 12:00 midnight 1973-74 Los Angeles it began to rain on the palm leaves outside my window

I’m not going to die easy; I’ve sat on your suicide beds in some of the worst holes in America,

stew at noon, my dear; and look: the ants, the sawdust, the mica plants, the shadows of banks like bad jokes; do you think we’ll hear

So I took the exam, passed it, took the physical, passed it, and there I was—a substitute mail carrier. It began easy. I was sent to West Avon Station and it was just like Christmas exc...

“Be quiet. Don’t wake Dancy. She’s my daughter. She’s 6 years I had a 6-pack of beer. Tammie put it in the refrigerator and came out with two bottles. “My daughter mustn’t see anything....

I finally, got a day off, and you know what I did? I got up early before Joyce got back in and I went down to the market to do a little shopping, and maybe I was crazy. I walked through...

the German hotel was very strange… double doors to the rooms, very th… looked the park and the vasser ter… it was usually too late for breakf… would be everywhere changing sheet…

think of de vils in hell and stare at a beautiful vase of flowers as the woman in my bedroom

escape from the black widow spider is a miracle as great as art. what a web she can weave slowly drawing you to her she’ll embrace you

On Christmas I had Betty over. She baked a turkey and we drank. Betty always liked huge Christmas trees. It must have been 7 feet tall, and 1/2 as wide, covered with lights, bulbs, tins...