Author: Max Cavitch

Life on the Delaware; or, Comings and Goings in the Riparian Zone

Life on the Delaware; or, Comings and Goings in the Riparian Zone

Posted by | Apr 1, 2021 | |

The first image in this somewhat meandering (in the picturesque, river-like sense!) photo-essay depicts the spot—more or less—where over 1,000,000 people first set foot on U.S. soil. It’s at the present tip of what’s known as Pier 53, just over a mile south of my apartment in the city’s historic district. The number 53 suggests something of the scale of the old port of Philadelphia, which consisted of a dense, comb-like network of piers reaching out from Philadelphia’s riverbank into the heavily trafficked waters of the Delaware River. The tip of Pier 53, Philadelphia PA. Photo © Max Cavitch....

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Where You Still Need a Dashboard Radio

Where You Still Need a Dashboard Radio

Posted by | Mar 7, 2021 | , |

  There’s a feud of channels in these hills, vestigial, spare, like an old man’s thatches, tangling at the dial’s end with scratches of impotent invective. Warring wills interrupted by valleys of silence, exhaustion. Territories don’t apply these days. Precincts are infinite as sky when warbling waves of sound skirt every fence. I’ve driven home before, one hand on wheel, fingers scanning vague alarms, devotions; clearly tuning in depends on motion. The knob sticks; ads, sermons, songs, chatter feel all wrong. I turn again. It takes me through a hundred miles, this locking on to you. —Max...

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Driving By

Driving By

Posted by | Nov 23, 2020 | , |

DRIVING BY a mandated-vocabulary poem based on a car-financing ad furnished by Maggie Robbins But thanks for driving and not looking too surprised. You’ve considered what one makes of a possibility that time and a lease provided. At home, looking at yourself, you can see why it’s just not right to be a couple now. A home is an extremely attractive but limited thing. You’ve been downright generous with your cars (your expensive cars)—even authorized credit for a new corporation. But never one authorized dealer in affordable information. So you looked at a new program of leasing, at different...

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