Like A Rolling Stone

the family patriarch sat

at the head of the table

presiding over the

Thanksgiving festivities

he carved the turkey

he said the prayer but

didn’t believe in it

and when the subject of

his thrice-divorced grandson

the wayward black sheep

and his bastard children

came up (in hushed tones)

the old man laughed

like a velvet thunderclap

“that Joey’s a rolling stone,”

he said. “ain’t no moss gonna grow on his balls.”

J. Archer Avary is a chameleon, a product of his environment, a restless wanderer. In past lives he was a TV weatherman, punk rock drummer, champion lionfish hunter, ocean conservationist. At age 44, he still doesn’t know what he wants to be when he grows up. Maybe a poet?

J. Archer Avary was born in Albuquerque, NM. He left the United States in 2014 and now lives on a tiny island in the English Channel. 

Find him on Twitter: @j_archer_avary