From Campfires of the Dead and the Living, a short story collection, which will be published next month by 11:11 Press.

“Is this your good shirt with the frayed collar and cuffs?” my mother says to me. Before I can answer her, she answers herself, “Let’s go for a new good shirt.”

Goldberg’s is where we go. Behind these windows is the same display of faded mackinaws and plaid shirts I believe I remember from nearly twenty years ago. The door opens to the same clack of bell and clapper. The smell is the same smell of new shoes,…