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This writing was accepted for publication in the 84 page perfect-bound issue... Down in the Dirt magazine (v078) (the January 2010 Issue) This is also available from our printer as a a $7.47 paperback book (5.5" x 8.5") perfect-bound w/ b&w pages

View this writing in the free John T. Hitchner chapbook Not Far From Here.		you can also get this writing as a 6" x 9" perfect bound book! click on the image or follow the link below to order Not Far From Here

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Not Far From Here,

John T. Hitchner

    She stood in a pub doorway in a city 5000 miles from my home, her skin the shade of light coffee, black hair in ringlets, brown leather mini skirt, pearl-buttoned scoop-neck white blouse, the tops of her breasts like smooth crescents.
    “Come on in, enjoy the music,” she greeted me.
    I thought, Why not.
    Over watered down wine and beer, we swapped life stories: I a travel writer between marriages, a stranger in this city of cathedrals and colleges. She a full-time single mother, part-time waitress, part-time singer.
    “Will you write about me someday?” she asked.
    “Sure,” I said.
    “Stay?” she said, her hand covering mine. “I’m on again at eleven. Afterward, we can walk.”
    She closed her eyes and sang of empty rooms and half-open windows and half-open doors, bass, sax, and piano behind her. Her voice and hands let lyrics drift toward unanswered questions and dead ends. When she closed with “Heart Like a Wheel,” I wanted to lie down beside her.
    “Let’s go,” she said when she came back to the table.
    “Where?” I said.
    “Where you’re staying.”
    In bed she asked questions with her body, but the answers I gave her were the laments and dead ends she had sung about.
    When she got up to leave I said, “Stay.”
    “I have to go. You’re all strangers,” she replied.
    “I’ll walk you home,” I said.
    “Never mind. I’m not far from here.”

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