we passed the mason-dixon line at 7:35 pm

it took us nine hours to drive from long island to charlottesville, virginia. the toll from new york to new jersey was $11. we bought coffee at a target in new jersey for $1 and i brushed my teeth in a pennsylvania gas station bathroom.
lots of big white crosses, skinny cows, misfits cows with white faces and black rings around their eyes.
we passed through a small sliver of west virginia: hills and farmland gilded by the setting sun and strip malls and massive wal-marts.
virginia is mountains and 'endless caverns' and wet air. the last two hours of the trip happened in the dark.


reading list


the orchard keeper - cormac mccarthy
the collected stories of flannery o'connor
push - sapphire
the short stories of ernest hemingway
plainwater - anne carson
the bhagavad gita
all the pretty horses - cormac mccarthy
the upanishads
a flower does not talk: zen essays
the grapes of wrath - steinbeck
snapshots - robbe-grillet
goat dances - ron loewinsohn
seeking air - barbara guest
on revolution - hannah arendt
will you please stop talking, please - raymond carver
walden - thoreau
on being blue - william gass
we meet - kenneth patchen