Brautigan At Bolinas Beach
Thinking hard about her, he got onto the bus and paid the thirty cents fare and asked the driver for a transfer before discovering that he was alone.
The bus let him off at Bolinas Beach. The great ball of orange had made it’s daily plunge into the western sea. Darkness settled on the beach like a warm comforter. He walked to the edge of the shore, black-green kelp and foaming sea water swirling about the legs of his faded bell-bottoms, and lit a cigarette.
“Fuck it,” he said, exhaling a plume of blue smoke into the reassuring cool sea breeze. “Fuck it all.”

March 22, 2008 at 6:17 am
Shit, I knew this was coming–Excellent job/damn buses–like the reference in the opening
–
“USED TROUT STREAM FOR SALE. MUST BE SEEN TO BE APPRECIATED.”
March 22, 2008 at 8:48 am
like the reference in the opening
Scot, I’ve written six of these Writers At The Shore pieces so far. Each one is sort of a literary Easter egg hunt in the respect that there is a repurposed line or two from the author’s work hidden in the text.
March 22, 2008 at 9:12 am
That is weird–that is what I did in mine–with the man/hat haiku…how strange is that–hope you don’t think I was ripping you off– I was going with he saw things as a poet that weren’t there like the hat–I had just seen that poem so it kinda stuck…odd.
March 22, 2008 at 9:28 am
hope you don’t think I was ripping you off
Of course not, Scot. If anything, your Brautigan haiku inspired me to add him to my roster of Writers At The Shore.
March 22, 2008 at 10:34 am
wow–maybe I should proof my posts better..haha–do you have this series posted? Anyway–the one posted here is brilliant
March 22, 2008 at 10:48 am
Thanks, Scot. Here’s the entire series so far:
http://carversdog.wordpress.com/category/writers-at-the-shore/
March 23, 2008 at 5:42 am
[...] Rodger over at Carver’s Dog is firing up a new online magazine. You can submit your poetry to him–see his guidelines below. While you are there check out his (wish I had written that) flash fiction piece on Richard Brautigan. [...]
March 23, 2008 at 10:05 am
The one flaw in your tale is that there is no bus that takes the person right to the beach in Bolinas… And there wasn’t back in the days of Brautigan, either.
Now if you had him perhaps hitching a ride downtown, or something like that. Then again, the house where Brautigan lived (and died) is walking distance from the beach.
March 23, 2008 at 10:25 am
Yes, Alex, and there was never a monster living in the ice caves beneath a house in Central Oregon either. (See Hawkline Monster)
If you’re familiar with Brautigan’s work at all, you should know why the bus is an important element in the story.
Thanks for reading!
March 23, 2008 at 1:06 pm
Happy Easter, Rodger Jacobs and cohorts…
Remember “In Watermelon Sugar” or Kesey’s stuff.
Talk about defining a generation– those were my Jr, High reads….
O’ dear.
You know revisiting those now might be interesting, Rodg.
Who wuz we?
March 23, 2008 at 6:57 pm
Val, I wrote about that exact subject in a piece at Wonderland called “Left Coast Gothic”:
http://8763wonderland.wordpress.com/2006/03/15/left-coast-gothic/
March 23, 2008 at 7:14 pm
These just in:
NYTimes Travel: Three books to put you on the road (if you don’t click, the three are Trout Fishing in America, The Subterraneans, and Naked Lunch)
NYTimes Travel: On the lam in Mexico with Ken Kesey
March 23, 2008 at 7:37 pm
I’m going to read that Kesey piece first thing in the AM, Joseph.
As for Subterraneans, I tried to re-read it when I was researching the Kerouac show last year and I just couldn’t get through it. The prose was so stilted and self-conscious.
March 24, 2008 at 8:18 am
Love this…….it’s bang on.
March 24, 2008 at 9:38 am
Thank you, Jo.
March 25, 2008 at 9:58 pm
I still think we should do a birthday bash for brautigan in north beach.
March 25, 2008 at 10:38 pm
Yes, we did have that idea, didn’t we, Don? Hmmmmm
May 15, 2008 at 7:33 pm
This is such bollocks, its ripping off true artists making there work a mockery of its former glory. for shame for shame!!
May 15, 2008 at 10:05 pm
huh?
And it’s their, not there
And what d’you mean former glory … you mean, Brautigan is dead????!!!!!