sit on this bench and look at the sea and the freaks and the lovers. need new eyes a new mouth new pillows, a new woman.

at high noon at a small college near the beach sober the sweat running down my arms a spot of sweat on the table

she writes continually like a long nozzle spraying the air,

I met an old drunk on the street one afternoon. I used to know him from the days with Betty when we made the rounds of the bars. He told me that he was now a postal clerk and that there...

We continued drinking. Cecelia had just one more and stopped. “I want to go out and look at the moon and stars,” she said. “It’s so beautiful out!” She went outside by the swimming pool...

boy, don’t come around here tellin… can’t cut it, that they’re pitching you low and insid… they are conspiring against you, that all you want is a chance but…

But the next morning it was the sa… “That’s all, Chinaski. Nothing fo… It went on for a week. I sat ther… Then Bobby Hansen, one of the old… “I don’t care. I’m not kissing hi…

The funeral was to be at 10:30 a.m. but it was already hot. I had on a cheap black suit, bought and fitted in a rush. It was my first new suit in years. I had located the son. We drove ...

when I look back now at the abuse I took from her I feel shame that I was so innocent,

we were in bed and she started to fight: “you son of a bitch! you just wait… I’ll get you!” I began laughing:

Graduation Day. We filed in with our caps and gowns to “Pomp and Circumstance.” I suppose that in our three years we must have learned something. Our ability to spell had probably impro...

We were eating meatballs and spaghetti. My problems were always discussed at dinner time. Dinner time was almost always an unhappy time. I didn’t answer my father’s question. “Henry, an...

the girls are coming home in their… and I sit by the window and watch. there’s a girl in a red dress driving a white car