#4: You're The Breeze in my Austin Nights
In early June of the never-ending 2020, I attended an anti-curfew, anti-police terror demonstration in my hometown of Oakland, California. (“We Met At A Protest,” Emily Garcia, Hobart.)
Leroy and Yorel Jenkins told each other cowboy stories all the time. They’d talk to each other about Roy Rogers, Ginger Rogers —
“Ginger Rogers was never a cowboy!”
“I’m telling you, Yorel. Ginger Rogers was a —”
— and about an island called Rosaria.
Rosaria was part of the Archipelago Island Nations on the planet Uccello. And the island itself was an entire island of cowboy towns. It was a cross between the greens and oranges of Texas and New Mexico shot through with the interlacing greens, purples, and snowcapped whites of Colorado.
It was an island of cowboy towns with names like, ‘Rosaline,’ ‘Desdemona,’ ‘Penelope,’ ‘Cassiopea,’ and others. It was an island filled with The Slowell Gang and The Cardinal Thorn Gang and was run by a man named Sirius Wexley Reinhardt IV. And as the two brothers started circling back from the west end of Texas and heading towards the east, they started to tell each other the story about a prospector made of gold who was hunted all over the island.
Under the gaze of wide-headressed girls, magician billionaires, light-up screens and groping drunks, I suddenly see in Bally’s Casino a church. Heads bowed and mouths parted in worship to the slot-machine gods, the heavy husk of incense—or is it cannabis?— mingles divine in the never-off light. (“HOLY HAIBUN IN LAS VEGAS,” Trini Rogando, HAD.)
The prospector’s name was Bart. Bart knew who he was. Bart knew why he was valued by others. But he also couldn’t imagine a life that would take him away from the island — from the horses, the trail, and the cattle that he could quietly hear as he sat by himself around a slow crackling campfire with a long, brown hooded tunic hoisted up over his head so as to better keep himself from glinting and reflecting off into the surrounding dark like a star that had fallen to earth.
“I like Bart,” Leroy said.
“Me, too,” his brother replied.
I am The Flying Nun from the TV show, soaring way up in the clouds with my arms held out stiffly and headpiece flapping like a seagull (“The Flying Nun,” Lynn Mundell, Words&Sports.)
ON BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO THIS WEEK: Shoes For The Coup / A Thought About Giannis / A Surprisingly Angry Screed from Kermit The Frog / A Chat With Kara Vernor / Rose City Daydream / How To Catch Fireflies / and More.
PSST: Aaron was a guest on the podcast No Edit. Take a listen!
OF NOTE/UPCOMING:
July 21st: “Harper’s Magazine and The MTH&M present THE NETANYAHUS: Joshua Cohen in conversation with Christopher Beha.”
Poetry Foundation is “seeking two independent contractors to write new poet biographies and to edit and expand existing poet biographies on the Poetry Foundation website.” Apply by July 28th.
July 28th: “Matthew Specktor in conversation with Adam Pfahler.”
Skylight Books (and others) are raising money to help establish a library for those incarcerated at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles.
August 5th, 12PM: “Join Trung Le Nguyen, author of The Magic Fish, as he discusses his YA graphic novel about family, identity & the enduring magic of stories.”
On August 14th, via the Brookline Booksmith as part of the Transnational Literature Series: “Susana Lange, Idra Novey, Stefan Tobler, and Charlotte Whittle discuss the life and work of author Norah Lange.”
Due August 27th: “Wigtown Book Festival announced today the launch of a new national essay prize for Scotland in association with the BBC. The £1,500 Anne Brown Essay Prize will be awarded for the best literary essay, published or unpublished, by a writer in or from Scotland. … The judging panel … will be looking for precise writing, original thinking, curiosity, and creative approaches to non-fiction topics. There are no set subjects for entries, and no specific requirements to write about Scotland, although entrants are encouraged to address ‘aspects of our shared social, cultural or emotional lives.’” (Source.)