The Schuylkill Ocean

I'm on the porch of my apartment, it's about 7 in the morning and the street looks like Front Street under the El in Kensington. Dark from being under traintracks, busy with cars and people and shops. A middle aged black man comes up and asks me for a dollar. I tell him no. Another black man comes up to the porch with a piece of 8x10 paper decorated similarly to money and asks me to confirm whether it's a real $50 bill or not. I tell him no. A neighbor who lives in my building comes up to the porch from a party from the night before with a half a dozen people. There's too many people on the porch. I back up and scream, "If anyone doesn't live here, get off the porch." The black men leave. My neighbor and his friends stare at me.

I go back into my apartment where I begin to eat oatmeal out of my glasses and blue glass bowls. My neighbor and his friends come into the living room, talking loudly and crowding around. I ask them to leave. When they do, all my bowls and glasses are out on the floor, filled with oatmeal and water, all chipped and leaking. Upset, I go into my room where there's a big TV and I listen to the noise of the television. There's nothing on it, no static or programs, but the noise it makes when it's just On. I'm on break at work and I'm home, I only have a half an hour and I'm trying to figure out how many minutes have actually passed. My mom calls me and tells me to meet up with her because she just got out of a doctors appointment in a building close to mine on Powelton Ave. I tell her I'd like to, but that I have to get back to work.

When I do get back to work, I'm trying to figure out how late I am, because I ended up taking a nap too. I see Chris Pasquerello at work and I ask him to help, but he seems very busy. I see my mom sitting down at a table with Allie Manning and another man asking me to sit down and eat. I tell her I can't and I have to go back to work.

I find Kat, my Assistant Team Leader and ask how much work I missed on my break. We're outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art, in the back, and there's some construction going on. It's related to Whole Foods, either that or some other big company. The Schuylkill River is actually the Schuylkill Ocean and this company that I'm related with is dumping 60 million tons of water into it. When they do, the ocean overflows and flows into the fountains of the art museum and then down the steps. I want to go into the water, but when I do I see it's murky and brown with soil and I don't want to be in it anymore.

"it's a good thing I woke up before they poured the cement in my coffin."

Christopher Montgomery had died of a heart attack. His arteries had clogged from too much scrapple, beer, cheese-its, and goldfish.

I was walking through a forest, half Wissahickon, half the grange near the 125 Farwood house, mourning the death of Christopher. I see his mother, Laurie, she's upset but not crying, her face twisted and wrinkled with sadness.

I go to work, still upset, talking to my co-worker, Jo, about Christopher. My work is half Whole Foods and half Maggie Moo's.

I see Christopher through a doorway. He's missing his glasses and on his face is a look of surprise and confusion.

"I thought you died!"
"I did, but it's a good thing I woke up before they poured the cement in my coffin."
"Do you remember being dead? How was it?"
"I don't remember."
"Do you remember slipping into death while you were still alive?"
"I don't remember."

Take the Dog out of it's Dog Suit.

I'm on a roof of a city house, there's a dog taken out of it's dog suit and put into a wet cardboard box suit. Flimsy unsupportable soggy legs. A tin man robot with the words "Daddy" across his chest. A man with a carrot for a head wearing a suit and a top hat. We're putting the dog in different suits. We finally put him in a Frankenstein suit which fits him well.

I'm in France and The Philadelphia Museum of Art. The sun is coming up and the world is bathed in an orange yellow light. I'm sitting in the lawn near the museum with my co-worker, Erin Riley and another girl. I get up and walk to the end of the street where hundreds of people on rollerblades come up to Eakin's Oval from West River Drive.

curled up like a cat on a chair. I don't sleep.

I'm in a small house, waiting for Tom and Alex Shaffer to show up. There was a murder in the house and the police have blocked off a room. I can't go in there, but I left my backpack in the room. I couple had been killed and mutilated in bathtubs, wrapped in gauze, their flesh and guts seeping through, wet with water and lifeless expressions.

When Tom and Alex got there, I was in pajamas, soaked with the water that was in the bathtubs of the dead couple. I didn't want him to see me.

Rena brought home a baby.

The apartment was redone. The kitchen expanded and we good green railings and marble floors, new cabinets, and a red stone decoration on the railings.

I'm in my bed and it's become an elevated version of our porch at the 125 house. It's early in the morning and there's a thick grey air surrounding me, cold with the beginning of winter. I'm laying on my mattress looking up at the sky and the trees, I can feel the wind picking up and I watch leaves and acorns fall onto me and my bed.

"How am I going to make it through the winter?"

Rena is safe and warm with her new baby below me in her indoor bed. She's on Skype with someone from West Chester who we went to high school with who is now permatripping from too much acid. I then transport to West Chester where I meet up with Tom and walk around a graveyard with.

I can feel it

I'm swimming in the pool we used to have in Cape May. It's late in the day, so the pool is shaded by the house. I feel so vivid and blue and I can feel the water seep into me and I'm swimming swiftly with precision.

Later, I'm in a little four roomed house that is Frank's around the corner from my Nonna's home. He's having a party there and it must be really late now, it's so late, the sun is coming up and it's almost morning and there's a cool white light illuminating everything. There are people sitting on the floor of this little house laughing and drunk and all over are glasses and vessels filled with liquids of different colors and consistencies. His friend Joey is there.

I leave and I find Shane Farrell in the empty streets. He's in Cape May with his family and wants to meet up with me. He's hitting on me but I'm not responding. He keeps asking me questions as we walk down the middle of the quiet road and sleepy houses.

car accidents

I'm sleeping on the floor of Celia Zizzi and Erica Dreher's apartment floor in Olde City. Her cats, Penelope and Dexter are sitting on my belly talking to me.

It's raining and getting colder. I'm driving or walking down City Line Avenue, I can hear cars with their bright headlights whiz past me, rain kicking up into the grey. My twin brother, Evan was in a car accident and his funeral is being held up the street in the house I grew up in. Shane Farrell is there and he's supposed to be my date. I keep thinking how weird it's going to be if someone asks if I have any siblings. All my life I was used to saying "Yeah, I'm a twin, He's the total opposite of me though." Now what?

Me and other kids who were going to Evan's funeral walked down City Line Avenue towards Alex Willis' house to go see him.