Several years ago, Jerry Jeff Walker said to me, "Lou, sometimes you've just gotta run your shit up a pole and see if it flies!" Therein lies some of the impetus for this book. That, and meeting an amazing woman, Ms. Zhenya Zh. My mentor and muse. Enclosed you'll find a random collection of poems, vignettes and short stories. There are some moments that I'm not particularly proud of, primarily in "The Drinking Days" section of this book. The way I see it, one can spend his entire life running away from his past, or he can fully embrace it. I choose the latter, as collectively, it has made me who I am today.