A deep, dark, very real depression now sits where my heart once was. We face terrible, very real problems now. For each man a void, but just how much should we be expected to suffer?

In my neighborhood, we are facing quite truly absurd food shortages that impact the simplest actions of everyday life. This is an issue I know I’ve addressed to some degree before and I don’t mean to harp on this matter, but life has turned into a nigh impossible fight for survival, scrounging and scrounging and still failing to dig up any deliciously decadent ice cream or French Crullers. Frankly…I’m out of tricks.

I had, for such a very long time, been a very Vanilla man…perhaps only ever splurging for Bean or French variations. However, one day something snapped inside of me…a total and complete change [...]

I never wanted to be a prizefighter. No aspirations…whatsoever.

But I should have known there would be no other course for me, but to be forced into that live-bait role…walking less than a block from my apartment on my way to the Laundr-O-Mat. Its just common sense…

“You gotta keep your head up!”

I spit out a spiraling wad of flem and gauze, blood and tissue, “Yeah…thanks Mickey…Mickey? Mickey, you…when did you become an elderly black lady?”

What the fuck…(spitting more blood)…what the fuck happened!? Where the fuck am I?!

Out of a second flash of what was a stronger haze, my mind and its eye are able to grasp the form of two kids running down the street. Two kids….two kids…

Alright…sure…got it. I was walking to the Laundr-O-Mat to transfer my newly unsoiled clothes, when I saw two kids walking in front of [...]

Back when I was a stronger…more resolute weakling – about a year or so ago – I would ask muggers and molesters if they wanted fries with that. They would quite often take me up on the offer and ask me to chip in 39 cents to supersize my loss. This is simply to characterize the fact that while I’ve always thought myself philosophically stone, in practice I slanted a little more naive and suckerish…a real Mayberry trust in my fellow man.

A particular experience recently returned to my mind. I was wandering the streets early one day, set to complete a catch and release tagging at the DMV with nothing but golden droppings pouring from my heart and similar rays spiraling from the eyes, my arms held out to the side like a 50’s cartoon character, just bobbing and swinging [...]