You who live on the coast,
   don't forget the aitch.
     Pittsburgh is small but mighty.

You who have moved away,
   don't forget the aitch.
     We haven't forgotten you.

You who make your home here,
   don't forget the aitch.
     Take care of your city.

You who are human,
   don't forget the aitch—
     the hopeless, the hopeful.

You who have trouble spelling,
   don't forget the aitch:
     P-i-t-t-s-b-u-r-g-h.

Birthday

Mary lives with her younger sister, her two brothers (one older, one younger), and her Mama in one of the Chicago projects they tore down in the late nineties. I'm with a girl named Hope. We take the train in from the suburbs and walk the last mile down to Taylor Street and find the right entrance.Mary and her family live up a few flights of stairs, behind a battered, iron-gated door. Their

[ read on ]

Disoriented

Joseph is 44, but he's in a nursing home. I know his age because the first time we spent time together was on his birthday. We went out for a hot dog. Joseph has spina bifida, and walks with a limp and a cane. He used to work in kitchens before his feet got too bad to stand on all day. Now he lives at the YMCA, and he goes to a clinic on the North Side every Wednesday to have the sores on his

[ read on ]

Almost Die

Mary is a steel heiress, married to a diplomat. We are celebrating a birthday at a beer bar. Someone orders a $34 bottle of Sam Adams' Chocolate Bock, one of their extreme beers. Mary: "Oh, that's tasty.  I have to be careful, that could get me in trouble."She talks about her childhood. Jet set. Parties in Palm Beach. Her mother has a stroke, from drinking during surgery. Invalid since Mary is

[ read on ]

Evangelism

So I'm reading philosophy. Descartes, probably, or Hume. Standing at the corner of 7th and Liberty with lots of humans, waiting for the Route 1, it hits me: philosophy is evangelism. What more do I want from someone than that they think seriously about themselves, about life? What more do I want to convert a person to, beyond engagement?I need to test this. Maybe once in ten bus rides, someone

[ read on ]

Work

Joseph and I are sitting at his kitchen table, eating brownies with peanut butter chips and drinking cold coffee. He just cut his son's hair. When he finishes sixth grade, Joseph stops going to school and starts working, washing dishes at the Country Kitchen. When he is fifteen, his alcoholic father kicks him out of the house, because Joseph refuses to drink. Miss Hearst charges him a little rent

[ read on ]

Room

Mary needs money for a room. She rents a small room at the Palace Hotel in the Hill District, under the table through Joseph, a custodian that she met at the Baptist church. This has to be discreet. I can't see the place or meet Joseph. She just needs $55 a week or she'll be out under the bridge, where she got raped.She does agree to have Joseph call me. So Joseph calls me. Mary needs $55 a week

[ read on ]

Smoking

I haven't got much of Joseph's story yet, but I do know he lived in South Carolina before moving here.It turns out he ran into trouble at his church down there because he smokes. It actually takes my wife and I a minute or two to realize what he is saying (as we're driving home from church). He's asking if we think he'll go to Hell for smoking."I don't drink or cuss or anything like that, but I

[ read on ]

Church

Mary took me to McDonald's for lunch, the one on Smithfield, in the heart of downtown. I say she "took me" because, although I was paying, it was definitely her home turf.She eats there every day: a cheeseburger with no ketchup, small fries with ketchup (saves half for later), and a Sprite. We don't talk in line, but she waves to people on both sides of the counter. The young girls behind the

[ read on ]