Introduction

I’ve been a scribbler since I plagiarized Stephen Stills’ anthem to love Suite: Judy Blue Eyes back in high school in an effort to win over a pretty girl who thought I was nothing but a loud, obnoxious jock. I wanted her to know I had a soft side.

It worked! And I learned the power of the written word.

I soon began to scribble original poetry and prose. God awful stuff. Cliché-ridden, melodramatic gobbledygook.

But I kept at it and, well, became reasonably adept at stringing the words together.

So what is this Middle Class American White Boy all about?

It’s sort of a memoir in verse. This Second Edition contains twenty stories (narratives) from some crucial or mind-expanding time in my life. The idea is to tell as much story as possible in the fewest possible words. The Universe, for instance—my own personal War & Peace—tells the tale of my time in Argentina during the Dirty War. When I wrote the account many years ago it topped out at almost 30,000 words. I have now reduced that same story to a narrative verse of just over 900 words.

You can read (either silently or aloud) each story in the collection in 2- 8 minutes. To hold your attention for even that long—before you scroll away or wander off—I try to create one rapid-fire image after another in your brain.

Middle Class American White Boy unfolds chronologically. I travel. I dream. I mature. I write. I publish. I fall in love. I marry. I become a father. My view of life and what is important expands and changes. Always, in every narrative, I question the status quo, especially my own.

But no matter how far I roam, deep I think, or believe to the contrary, I am and always be a Middle Class American White Boy.

As we say here in America: Say la V!