fourth period, seventh grade

This is some of the geography in my life: lived four and a half years in Florida; lived almost 12 and a half years in Oregon; now, among four ventures under the California sun, four and a half years here; it leaves a smidge over 54 years living in Massachusetts. I was there when all the lights went out. I was there when nowhere else waved the flag of George McGovern. I was there catching little league fly balls. There for 10,000 screw-ups, and there shining my little light, even on the rainiest days.

Massachusetts renting in West Yarmouth, Salem, Lynn, Newburyport, Marblehead, Somerville, Rockport, Lowell, North Truro, Medford. Paying no rent in a flock of others.

I was married in Florida and divorced in Massachusetts; married in Virginia and divorced in Oregon. Wrote and published eight books in Oregon, now four in California. Once I went to a three-day rock festival just outside Toronto, Canada, the only time I’ve left the country.

Along the way I befriended a bunch of Greyhound buses, and a solitary bench in the Rhododendren Garden in Portland. Today I’m sort of broke here in San Diego. With money. Not so much otherwise.