by Travis Mateer

Friday I found myself at the epicenter of a deluge that dropped a historic amount of rain on New York City, especially the part of NYC I was in, Brooklyn. Why was I in Brooklyn? To pick up a very rare book that features the only poems Philip K. Dick ever published. When I finally got a chance to read the poems at the Marlton Hotel, where Kerouac worked on his On The Road manuscript, I was not surprised to see RAIN appear in the poem.

Here’s one of the 3 poems:

Soft as tin,
Melting in the rain,
Melting and dripping down,

Soft as stones that are limp,
That can be bent into shapes
And stretched out,

Soft as bones,
Mashed into paste,
Mixed with pale milk,

Soft as crystal,
Dug from sweet soil,
Slowly stirred,

It is soft as these:
The moon on a warm wet night.

Earlier in the week I was in Philadelphia to try and visit the kick-ass boutique where I get a lot of my kick-ass clothes one more time, since I left a journal in the store at the beginning of this eastern portion of my adventure.

The store was closed, so I continued on to my last stop in Pennsylvania, only to find out that when night descended that day, Philly erupted into violence, which was widespread and somewhat sustained, since the next day some level of looting continued. From the link:

Looting continued in Philadelphia last night as police released details of more than 50 people arrested the night before.

Video recorded after last night’s looting shows the huge damage done to a liquor store on Adams Avenue. Many of the store’s shelves were left bare and some looters dropped bottles outside as police arrived. Elsewhere, police made at least one arrest when a sneaker store on Torresdale Ave was being looted, according to FOX 29 News Philadelphia.

The police list of over 50 arrested the night before shows an age range from 14 to late 30s. The stores the suspects are accused of looting include a Lululemon clothing store; Rite Care and Rite Aid pharmacies; Cash For Gold; U-Haul van rental and branches of Fine Wine & Good Spirits liquor store.

While this happened the same day of protests regarding an “officer involved shooting” in Philadelphia, the looting is being depicted as completely separate from those protests. It’s with this in mind that I came across a big mural with names on it and a little message to artists from Toni Morrison:

Yeah, it’s easy to write about not remaining silent, but it hits a little differently when you start ACTING and DOING things to destroy the silence that narrative controllers think they can maintain by controlling the official platforms of information dissemination.

Here’s an example of what NOT remaining silent looks like:

And what does it look like to be trolled by the universe as you try to break a type of narrative control that has metaphysical dimensions to it? It looks like a print hanging on an obscure wall in your hotel that gets your attention after a day of too much craziness to even begin to describe in a post like this. Here’s the image that trolled me:

Do I need to remind readers that Sean Stevenson was allegedly CHOKED unconscious by Johnny Lee Perry on January 3rd, 2020, in the men’s dorm of the Poverello Center before the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office euthanized Sean at St. Pats by removing him from life support without telling his family?

I hope when you read this I’ll be back on the west coast, but the way things have been going, I’m not going to impose any expectations on my return. While I travel, here are the week’s posts you can check out.

This Is The City Where Sean Stevenson Was Born (September 25th, 2023)

Cyril Wecht, The Famous Pathologist Who Criticized The Warren Commission, Answered My Call Yesterday (September 26th, 2023)

When I Say Montana Is An Embarrassment This Is What I’m Talking About (September 27th, 2023)

The Cupcake Was Sweet, But Everything Else Was Just Sad (September 28th, 2023)

Destination ANYWHERE But Missoula (September 29th, 2023)

If you appreciate the work of embarking on an epic adventure spanning nearly two months while writing about what I learned on the road in an amazing account that will eclipse Kerouac’s little book, then consider supporting Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF), or making a donation at my about page.

What you looking at, writer man? Time to start packing for your return to the Big Sky.

I hope they’re ready for me.