On Running Out of Gas in Rural Missouri
Notes on fatherhood and petroleum
The Witch and the Virgin Mary
What had I expected to find here, in this place named for another religion’s saint? This was a shrine to the mother of God - but not the mother of any of my gods.
The Cracked Wonder of Cementland
If the City Museum was a tribute to industrial repurposing, Cementland was meant to be its pinnacle.
Unspooling the Cassette Tape in Springfield, Missouri
The National Audio Company is keeping the cassette tape —and tape culture —alive in the Midwest and around the world. [...]
Blowing Up Missouri
It sounds ridiculous to blow up and flood part of a state, but this ridiculous idea worked.
The Last Children of Mill Creek [Excerpt]
"My father was the grandson of Mississippi slaves, and the son of a thrice-married and divorced mother who had cleaned white peoples’ homes and cared for their children in two states by the time they settled in St. Louis in 1929."
2014
"Yes, I have been here before / On the threshold of justice’s door / Half a century ago / In Selma, Oxford, / And Birmingham." [From "The St. Louis Anthology"]