#chicopee

My daughter and I watched in amazement as a large, bright green ball of light streaked across the sky at a medium altitude leaving a short trail of atmosphere or smoke behind it at a speed that is impossible for any aircraft I have ever seen. It was traveling as fast as a meteorite across the sky in a northeasterly direction across the Connecticut River headed over Chicopee before we lost sight of it.

don’t trust the ice on the river. terrible things are under it

junkies roam the cities with hollow eyes. You couldn’t make eye contact even if you wanted to. They’re looking elsewhere

sometimes bears will wake up in the middle of false spring. stay inside and don’t speak of them. they will be moved somewhere else eventually

you don’t remember learning the names of roads but soon you know shortcuts and backroads like veins in your arm

the 7/11s can be a safe haven or a hell. Don’t risk it unless you have to

we don’t know when the dunkin’ donuts appeared. you never see construction, but all of a sudden there’s the gleaming pink and orange on every street

you try to drive away from here, you drive until your car is empty. You’ve just looped back to the same small town

the hawks are on every highway, but there’s no mice

sometimes unmarked cars drive by you very slowly. keep walking and looking forward

everyone hears the same news station. The hosts have been talking for decades. They never stop.

you remember the first snowfall of the year, and then the rest of winter merged into one cold, gray, bleak misery

there’s a man walking on the side of a busy road. He keeps walking in the same direction as you no matter where you go

the people who go into the casino don’t come back out

in the fall people come to see the leaves. they take pictures but there’s always something behind the trees