youngstown, oh
saddest city in america
"the five most depressing cities in america," lists business insider, and youngstown tops the charts. there is an interview in the atlantic.
[[//]]
youngstown, oh
saddest city in america
personal purpose, community pride, economic stability, the large mill where your father worked before his hands turned to dust
[[//->1]]
phoenixville, pa
during the summers (2006-2010) you worked on the assembly line next to a woman named myrna. she had all her teeth, she let you know. you fold your sheets up in the morning, her mother remembers.
allegany, new york
your mother keeps a candle on a side table, unlit, next to a photo of you at your church's octoberfest in 1997.
route 80, virginia
there is something happening in your chest, you are building a home there
you built a home in a lot of places and you could make forests out of raising high the roof beams (carpenter)
[[//->2]]
district line, 23:29 (summer)
i wonder if i will remember with as much clarity london nights on the train girls laughing eating mcdonalds swapping stories short skirts floral tops a little too warm and hungry the metallic screeching hushing thrum of a train rattling forward
[[//->3]]
liverpool street, 09:21 (summer)
the man on the PA system drones on, it is train times, reminders for eyes on suspicious packages, it is lost loves, it is the way her back arched in summer heat, sweat and salt and a thin layer of dirt. easy does it he croons and the commuters standing on the tiles covered in sheens of summer heat summer sun summer dirt the hangers on of summer in early september they can't quite make it out (the lost loves he lists off her traits like a timetable all the times he connected stars out of her freckles like every time he told her they were kisses from god and he would laugh and she would roll her eyes and someone rustles their newspaper, they can't quite make it out between the static, they can't quite make it out in the soft scream of a train pulling in
[[)->4]]
cannon street (april)
a list of liminal spaces
- doors
- hallways
- long stretches of road at night
- stairwells in train stations when you can hear the rain and remember how small you are
- hotel rooms
[[//->5]]
you listened to a david sedaris audiobook on a road trip with your father, you were on your way to indianapolis, it was his high school's 45th reunion.
passing through columbus ohio, there was a sign for youngstown (maybe, probably, you can't recall, it seems unlikely now)
[[,]]
thanks
xx
kb