Leaving Chicago on the 5:45 pm Cardinal. By this time tomorrow, I'll be in Ashland (KY). Had a wonderful time at the reading. The record store, No Requests, is nice little place. One of the owners told me they're also a record label focusing on local bands. They release titles on cassette... reminded me of those single or two song cassettes you'd find as a special right before an album drop or to fan up interest
My friend and poetic comrade Jeri has a lovely apartment with a polite and friendly roommate and two cats, both of which resisted my attempts to take pictures of them. They tolerated me well enough and were almost friendly by the time I left for the train station.
The cats eye me
with far less suspicion.
Their gazes say
you will miss us.
Off Lakeshore Drive heading into the downtown business district, the Uber driver used Ida B Wells Drive. I wonder if anyone driving it knows what she endured in the name of truth just to have a stretch of street named after her.
Holy mother of muckrakers,
sweet lady of malady, madness and letters
have mercy on us!
Taking a smoke outside Union Station the Jackson Street, I'm soaking in the city yet again, one more time. The weather is cooler, than it had been, and the sun is shining. There's a few of us there, smoking. Even though the Canal Street doors are open to the public again, the Jackson Street door is more convienent for smokers. The others are huddling in shadows and I find myself drawn to the light around the corner. Street hustlers mix in the panhandlers. I see the hard push on a few unsuspecting travelers trying to wave off the nicotine mists. But the ATM is right over there, I hear one say.
What a shame:
out of shadows cast by brick, steel, and glass
violence bids hello
with a handshake and a sharp smile.