I’ve made two trips to Ohio now, both surreal. The first was for the country wedding of my second cousin, out on their ranch in Amish country (east of Columbus). Reception held at an Amish restaurant, which was my first time dealing with them face-to-face. Those bonnets are curiously sexy, man. Then in 2000 I made this very bizarre road trip from Chicago to attend that year’s regional poetry slam finals in Dayton. Talk about a city created by David Lynch or something! The weirdest, most interesting people live in Dayton, yet the town itself is nothing particularly worth noting; maybe there’s something in the water there? The poetry event was on the edge of town, with nobody but the poets knowing about it; then we all got wasted at this white-trashy hotel downtown. What a strange trip that was.
over 7 years ago