{"id":5481,"date":"2019-10-10T06:51:45","date_gmt":"2019-10-10T13:51:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/?p=5481"},"modified":"2019-10-10T06:51:47","modified_gmt":"2019-10-10T13:51:47","slug":"730-am-gas-station-convenience-store-apocalypse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/meditations\/730-am-gas-station-convenience-store-apocalypse\/","title":{"rendered":"7:30 AM gas station convenience store apocalypse"},"content":{"rendered":"<!-- wp:themify-builder\/canvas \/-->\n\n\n<p>7:30 AM gas station convenience store\napocalypse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A service center for marginalized\nsouls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Here I am, rock me like a&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wagner is not playing \/ Kool and the\nGang<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Man walks out with a corndog for\nbreakfast<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He drops it on the concrete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He picks it up. He eats the whole dog\nin one bite. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A man skates up and he&#8217;s chained to his\nskateboard<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He&#8217;s got chains coming out of his face\nand chest<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Three tattooed women, 30, 50, 70,  pump\ngas<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An obese couple buys matching Monsters<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A man in fatigues buys chew and a\nLunchable<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>No way Steinbeck or Carver could have\nwritten books about these people. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>No way Woody or Bruce could have\nwritten songs about these people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I can&#8217;t even imagine Dylan working in a\nfallen corndog or a man chained \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>to a skateboard into a song. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How would a painter paint this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is no streaming show about them<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>but their show streams live every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They are something new in America, or\nperhaps not. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Have they always been among us?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They need chroniclers,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>but that work doesn&#8217;t pay enough for a\ncorndog a day. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At lunch I visit a bookstore. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A ten-stack of Brautigan paperbacks\nrests near the register. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s a haul. I do a double take, \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The volumes reek of smoke and wine. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Owner tells me a man \u201chard on his\nluck\u201d \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>just came into sell them. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The owner bought them for a song. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I missed  the man by minutes!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I would have doubled what he received,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>right there!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I would have demanded an oath he never\nsell them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Except for cigarettes and wine<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>because Richard would have approved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There those book sat. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I thought about buying the lot<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>and distributing them at the\nconvenience store during<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>the next morning&#8217;s apocalypse. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But no one would give a shit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A man can&#8217;t read while skateboarding<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(although I have seen it)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s not the way to get anywhere<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>with this subject.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What is? \n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>7:30 AM gas station convenience store apocalypse. A service center for marginalized souls. Here I am, rock me like a&#8230; Wagner is not playing \/ Kool and the Gang Man walks out with a corndog for breakfast He drops it on the concrete. He picks it up. He eats the whole dog in one bite. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5482,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meditations","category-poetry","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5481"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5484,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5481\/revisions\/5484"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}