“Oro en Paz, Fierro en Guerra” Which is the official motto of the City of San Francisco and the police department of the city of San Francisco. Perhaps a better motto would be “To Protect and Serve.” Because clearly the city, or its police, do neither well. And when was the last time San Francisco […]

Medals were a big deal in the Army. Probably still are. But I don’t really know the Army anymore. I got out eight years ago and these days soldiers wear uniforms they don’t have to press and boots they don’t have to shine. And now they have something called the Combat Action Badge which must […]

Dear New Yorker: I am writing to express my discontent with my current subscription. I am living in Topeka, Kansas, and look forward every week to the new issue. I love the reporting and the essays, the Talk of the Town. The fiction? Hit-or-miss. Try not to take yourselves so seriously all the time. Anyway, […]

Hey man, welcome to second platoon. Where are you from? Oh yeah, I think I’ve heard of that place. You grow potatoes or some shit, right? You’re straight out of basic? Man, first thing you need to do is get some new boots. You should get some jungle boots because it gets warm here. What […]

One night on Fort Knox the Armor boys got all dressed up and had themselves a ball. A military ball is a lot like prom, except for all the swords and the depressing POW table set up in the corner. There’s a guy who’ll take a picture of you and your date and everybody drinks […]

I’m out in the world now, trying to be an adult. I’ve got a kitchen with a stove and oven and refrigerator all to myself. The doctors tell me my diet is shit and I’ll die one day. I tell them we’ll all die one day, but they miss the point. So I was in […]

He walked away after everyone else had. There was nothing heroic about it. Isolated by snow. Suffocated by cold. He watches the birds—flying and chirping and preening. He thinks, Maybe I could learn. And falls into a whiskey haze. He grows weary of these text messages—lazy and fleeting and meaningless. He wishes for more. But […]

We’re two planets orbiting comfortably our yellow star. We can see each other in our skies at night, flashing messages back and forth. But something happens and our star grows small and cold and white. Who knows why. All its hydrogen fused into helium? The proton-proton chain reaction stops reacting? These technical answers can’t satisfy. […]

I remember riding the bus with you one hot January night. You were sick and sweating, swinging your feet like a child. A woman with tangled hair asked you where Haight was. Her hemp necklace heavy with beads, her hands grabbing each other. She told you that she’d been on the bus for a long […]

“There is no there there.” There are no seasons here. Only fog and sun and a month of rain. The rain only if we’re lucky. Because if the rain fails. We’ll drink from the toilet. Wash in the toilet. Play in the toilet. And once a week we’ll flush the toilet. They’ll collect it, filter […]