Nashville Skyline: 1983
| NASHVILLE SKYLINE: 1983 a short story published in Transfer |
VIEW PDF AND READ THE STORY "When I'm sixteen years old Bob Dylan shows up to help me run away from Nashville. The first time I see his tongue is when he licks the rolling paper. Face bent to his glowing palms, Bob Dylan says, I guess you need someone to drive while you're sleeping. It sounds so tender I'm not sure he's really said it. He smells of ink, warm violets, soil. He says he wants me to tell him everything -- what lives between your kneecaps, what birds nest in your valleys -- everything. AUTHOR'S NOTE: Growing up in Nashville and going to high school off Music Row, I remember undertaking a particularly brilliant exploit one night, and a cop saying to me, with a ruminous tone, "you know, most of the kids we lock up in the psych hospital are from your high school." I was henceforth and forever torn between my commitment to run away to New Orleans and connect with a mariachi band, and my Musketeer allegiance to these mysterious disappeared comrades locked up in the secret hell of Tennessee mental wards. From time to time, the high school school leadership suggested the gritty men of music row were rapists and perverts - a provocative method for dissuading absenteeism, but to me they were sad, empathetic, and lyrical advocates for my dreams. - QAW |
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