Tag Archives: Brooklyn
No Man’s Brooklyn
I have started working on my new novel: No Man’s Brooklyn. A return to the bones of childhood, and to tangled roots. A return to the gritty lore of Bensonhurst.
Digging for Air
There was always plenty of tomorrow-talk, bright ribbons of noise amounting to nothing. What we would do, where we would go, how we’d become this or that. We erected fragile monuments to ourselves, and expected others to pay their respects, … Continue reading
Birth of a Prologue
They say you can’t go home again. I don’t know who “they” are, but apparently this mysterious phantom collective is well-stocked in facts, aphorisms and guidelines. I was going home again, to Brooklyn, though the notion of return, … Continue reading
Summer Song
At the edge of a remote island, (sirens in the distance) modeling jigsaw scars, cracked veins, and an oily sheen, a fast fade dream, a scorched mirage, occurs every evening like clockwork. Walter, jangling his bell, shouting: Good Humor Man, … Continue reading
My Grandmother, My Chaplin
Excerpt from Raking the Dust, honoring the birthdays of my grandmother (April 15th) and Charlie Chaplin (April 16th). In times of hardship and heartache my grandmother would recite St. Teresa’s Prayer or sing Charlie Chaplin’s “Smile” in a warbly and … Continue reading
The Urban Way
Boy on street corner brown bag in his hand, crinkling– Yo, I’ve gotta piss.
Busy Signal
Excerpt from Broken Land, a Brooklyn Tale: There’s not really a name for what I do. I am not an investigative journalist, I am not a private eye. I am not a minstrel essayist. There are many things that I … Continue reading
1923
In the black and white photo, 1923 written in faded pencil in the lower left hand corner, neatly scalloped perforations along the borders—my grandmother and her sister, Rose, are standing on the beach. Coney Island. In the background the … Continue reading
Spleen
We didn’t talk about it, but we knew we’d never amount to anything, no matter what we did. No matter how celebrated the accomplishment, no matter how big the lie and the audience buying it, nothing could ever … Continue reading
Fruit
L & S was a candy store and newsstand located on the corner of 60th St. and 18th Ave. L & S, which stood for Louie & Son, was owned by Louie Varinella: a burly, slightly balding man with … Continue reading
