You are currently viewing the stories for May, 2019

The Trouble with Ghosts

by 05/26/2019
Neighborhood: Lower East Side

  Anton and Lelo were scared. They had seen them every day at the bar where we work for the past several months—lurking in corners, hiding behind shelves, disappearing into cracks in the walls, into drains, into boxes. Not roaches. Not rats. Ghosts. It was practically an infestation. A ghost infestation. I wanted to laugh […]

Rootless

by 05/19/2019
Neighborhood: East Village

  Sattley, California. Winter solstice 2016. We’re at my Aunt-in-law’s house, in the High Sierras, in the Egyptian room. Sphinxes, golden fabrics, a Nefertiti head. The rest of the house is faux Victorian, a modest ranch overstuffed with Costco products and kitsch. My wife, my toddler daughter, and I are curled up under an electric […]

From The New Plantation

by 05/12/2019
Neighborhood: Rikers Island

Lessons from Rikers Island That first morning, I was stopped by the correction officers just before the bridge that leads to the 413-acre, liver-shaped island in the middle of the East River between Queens and the Bronx.  I was struck by how bored the COs acted. It was as if they were telling me there […]

Keith Haring in the Brooklyn Museum

by 05/05/2019
Neighborhood: Brooklyn

I used to like Keith Haring’s stuff When you’d see It on the subway You’d look out The window as The train pulled In and see A space ship With a beam Of light on a Baby or A dog or Something And you’d smile Or see the ones with the Big muscle guy With […]