Seven Days Personals - Introducing: Vermonters

I come from
an A-Frame in Santa Cruz
under lawn sprinklers
a cup of coffee
dozens of civic centers and coliseums
sad apartments in Syracuse that I thought were funky
grammar school hallways filled with green absorbent janitor crystals
a dozen kitchens streamy with dishwashers, sweaty with labor
a college study carrell
under a pile of coats at UC Berkley
a suburban house with a burnt bedroom floor
behind a laptop filled with screenplay words
behind an edit room door
a movie set that assembled free of budget money
one jetway, then another, and another
cruise ships that I now feel guilty about
my favorite pub
a dissolved home, an atomized family and a broken relationship
a parade of awkward dates
a series of uncomfortable mattresses
better and better cars
a giant press room that printed a small newspaper
under a hydro power station
three houses I never owned
a delivery van taking produce to a prison
a house on Cape Cod, where eventually I was welcome
a warehouse full of mountaineering equipment
a church where I played music of my favorite bands in my head until it was time to leave
O’Connell Street in Dublin, Shop Street in Galway, Barracks Street in Loughrea
a series of couches in front of a parade of TV sets
behind a law mower
a sign shop and artists studio
a beach full of horseshoe crabs
a small Caribbean city
the 79th Street subway station; the 1 or the 3 train
the shadows of a high school
a TV studio that I can’t remember the location of
a record store in Amherst
shopping malls – against my will
a hospital room where no one told me anything
an orange grove in California
a kennel in California
a storefront makeshift sleeping shelter in California
a transient hotel in California
a roadside tequila stand in Yucatan
a language school in Seville
terminal five at JFK
a cathedral high above Montreal
the worst motel in Las Vegas
a stream beside my house, filled with my little green army men wading ashore
a dirty pit under train tracks
the roof of a grammar school
the edge of the Erie Canal
the middle of the Atlantic Ocean
the wheel of a Canadian Americas Cup yacht (retired)
the San Francisco city jail (visiting)
a motel room across from the Grateful Dead’s studio
the outskirts of Flagstaff
a couch in a room on the 10th floor of the math building at UC Berkley with a balcony overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge
the 9th floor of an apartment building on the Upper West Side. Wish I was there now.
a bus in the middle of the night, between Wyoming and Nebraska
a plane circling the San Juan airport
a lawn chair under very large shrubs, looking at a vegetable garden
the movie theater
a few old towns in Slovienia
around a thousand corners