Queens, New York, 3:37 AM, January 23rd, 1981 by Miles Varana

A bum asleep on a bus or huddled by her shopping carts beneath the nearest overpass. An insomniac slumped over an ashtray in the brightly lit window of an all night diner. 2 men drunk in the parking lot of a Wendy’s, just off work from the medium-late shift at a plastics factory and about to go home to their wives in the Bronx. A recently separated cab driver with a doctorate in philosophy, who once during grad school wrote an essay with the moderately corny title “Rock On and On: the Complex Influence of Eastern Thought Upon Contemporary Western Music,” who is slightly but not unattractively overweight, who between 1976 and 1979 was considered by many of his peers to be among the most skilled Ultimate Frisbee players in the borough of Brooklyn, who sometimes watches sitcoms, driving his taxi and quietly contemplating the imminent death of a relative. 3 pseudo-Kerouacs wandering the streets in a raucous pack, smoking joints and searching for prose. A stockbroker and sometimes amateur clown, on her way back up from a belated taking out of the trash, about to skin her left knee on the stoop and soon to partially resolve a mid-life crisis.

Miles Varana is currently the co-managing editor of Hawaii Pacific Review. His work will appear in the upcoming November issue of Yellow Chair Review and the December issue of The Bitchin’ Kitsch. He enjoys rainy days, midnight hikes, and imbibing copious amounts of sushi. Miles lives with his girlfriend, Alana, and their pet bunny rabbit, Cameron.