Mordecai Martin

Midnight A Train

I leave 190th street and a municipal elevator rockets me into the ground where I meet one of those subway trains that wend their way under the earth that I have been riding for much of my life and much of my parents’ lives and much of my grandparents’ lives and much of my greatContinue reading “Midnight A Train”

There Goes Funky Flashman: An obituary for Stan Lee

I wrote this on November 12th, 2018 for my now-defunct newsletter, and I’m posting it here in honor of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Stan Lee. Stan Lee died today, aged 95, outlasting just about anyone who thought of him as anything besides the lovable grandfather of Marvel Comics. Oh, there were alwaysContinue reading “There Goes Funky Flashman: An obituary for Stan Lee”

You Can’t Stay Here: An open letter to Mayor Eric Adams

I am trying to end my time in Philadelphia. It has been difficult. I’m trying to sell my house, and no one wants to buy it. Well that’s the way of the market, I suppose. Interest rates and so on. Maybe the basement is damp. Things invisible and visible, that’s what is happening. I amContinue reading “You Can’t Stay Here: An open letter to Mayor Eric Adams”

The Clinch: Usyk vs. Joshua 2, Jedda, 2022, “The Rage on the Red Sea” (My first live fight.)

I was greeted by mischievous giggles at the door. It was a hot day, even just for the walk from the subway, and Ivan’s three and a half year old, V., ran away almost immediately and hid from me, but looked out curiously from under the dining room table at my sweating hairy bulk. ItContinue reading “The Clinch: Usyk vs. Joshua 2, Jedda, 2022, “The Rage on the Red Sea” (My first live fight.)”

After the Destruction, Over the Sea

Your feet the first feet to touch your new, fresh lawn.

The King is Dead, Again: the Echo of an Obituary

What electric thing passed through the screen, over the many miles between Memphis and Hong Kong?

Funny Weather We’re Having

The day the coup came, we woke up to a creative destruction.

Elegy For Number 10

Maradona can not be measured over a lifetime.

What I Want To Achieve In My Writing

In December 2016, I wrote the following in a google drive document called “What I Want To Achieve In My Writing.” First, I am most concerned with writing something beautiful. That it have the clarity, catchiness, melancholy, humor, rhythm, tenderness and unity of thought that I love in writing, this is what I mean byContinue reading “What I Want To Achieve In My Writing”