One Murder After Dark and Four Stories

Songs make for interesting story telling devices. The best songs tell great stories, and great stories always deserve a closer look. These closer looks (criticisms if you want to sound literary) can serve to inform, to entertain, and to persuade. “Murder, Tonight, in the Trailer Park” by the Cowboy Junkies is one such great story. There are multiple approaches and interpretations of this song, but I’m want to focus on how night and money play a role in the lives of the characters in this song.

The central plot of “Murder, Tonight, in the Trailer Park” is the murder of Mrs. Annabelle Evans. She is murdered some time after sunset. Annabelle’s body is identified by a neighbor, Peg. The apparent motive for Mrs. Annabelle Evans’ murder is robbery. She is killed for what amounts to not much more than pocket-money. Nearby an unidentified character is prompting someone by the name of Ann Marie to pack her bags and leave with him under the cover of night. We aren’t made fully aware of the motive for the unidentified character’s desire to move and to what extent Annabelle Evans’ death may have in that decision, but this character has “been saving pennies” in preparation for the move. He tells Ann Marie that they will head west under the cover of night and make a new start. Meanwhile, across town, George Evans (Annabelle’s husband) is spending his night at a bar getting drunk, buying rounds for the regulars, and bragging about how he won big at a game of craps. Later this same night, we see a “faceless man” in a hotel room counting out crumpled bills and waiting for the sports results on TV. He turns down the volume when news of the murder is reported. He isn’t as concerned with Annabelle Evans’ murder tonight as he is with whether or not the wagers he placed today are winners. All four scenes all occur on the same night, and money connects them all.

Take a close listen to “Murder, Tonight, in the Trailer Park” for a gritty, realistic story about a murder after dark, money, and the impact both have on the people around it.

November 3, 2026 0

Clocking Out

Working full-time, part-time, contract jobs, or day labor. It can be straight pay, overtime, salary, or per diem. Working weekdays, weekends, mid-shifts, nights, twelves, or seven and two. PTO, holiday pay, vacations, or just grinding day to day.

It’s all work. Although there is a holiday called Labor Day to celebrate those who work, many must show up and clock in. We’re putting in the work, clocking out, and just hoping one day it will all pay off.

September 30, 2026 0

Thoughts on Personal Workspace

My current workspace is a cubicle (one of the most traditional of American workspaces). Employee cubicles at this job vary from the sparsley decorated to those that look like somehting from an overstocked second-hand shop. This wide variety of cubicle decor has me thinking about how people choose to decorate their workspace

One obvious reason for decorations is personal expression. All that bric-a-brac is visual representation of who the employee is. Another purpose could be to display status. I’ve seen many workspaces crowded with diplomas, certificates, and other random awards. There are also the candy bowl cubicles, trying to lure fellow employees over like some sort of a sad version of Hansel and Gretel. The most important reason for decorations is a sense of ownership. In a world where we give eight or more hours a day to an employer many feel they need a little place to call their own (even if we don’t have property rights). Whether it’s a few photos, a couple of knick knacks, an award, or a bowl of Sweet Tarts it’s an attempt to mark off a little place of the world as our own where the time isn’t ours.

September 21, 2026 0

The In-Between Time

Nine o’clock on a warm Sunday morning attempting to regroup from a sixteen hour Saturday shift while coming to grips with a twelve hour shift tonight. Exhausted but too wired on caffeine to consider sleep for at least a couple hours. I call these the unoccupied hours the in-between time.

With a few bottles bottle of beer in hand, a familiar playlist on Spotify, and a cigar in my shirt pocket I take a seat at my little too rusted patio table. I pop a beer, turn up the volume, and light the cigar. This is the usual routine for the in-between time. Trying to get away from the thought of work while knowing work is less than ten hours away. The first beer empties a little too quickly as the cigar marks the time.

I look across the yard and notice the cars and trucks traveling down the road. Families wearing their pressed Sunday best on their way to one church or another. I pop another beer, return the waves of children riding in backseats, and I wonder what it would be like to have somwhere to go or something to think about on a Sunday that didn’t involve work?

September 15, 2026 0

“Take a Fit”

Tellurians plodding half-heartedly to
Weekday carrels. There is no merriment 
For the voiceless mass.

Bosses excoriate a variety of
Mendacious media. Their intentional
Propaganda is as genuine as their workplace "family."

Our drudgery is ours.
Our anger is ours.
Our hours are theirs.

from Firsts and Lasts

September 9, 2026 0