Author: James Pack

James Pack is a member of the Horror Writers Association and has published several collections of poetry and short fiction. He is the editor of the left leaning political blog, www.theproperdeal.com. Learn more about James and his collected works on his personal blog www.thejamespack.com. He lives in Tucson, AZ.
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Tuesday Poetry: Where’s the Tylenol?

The sink is filled with dishes
You haven’t used
There’s very little food in the fridge
And it’s too hot to cook
The sink and the tub are covered
With things you don’t use
The bedroom is littered with clothes
And junk that you don’t own
The only time you have alone
Is when you’re on the toilet
You have to leave the house
To get away from the noise
Crashing at a friend’s house
Means sleeping on a couch
Like you have for two months
No time to relax, no time for fun
But it won’t last forever

From the poetry collection Cats, Coffee, Catharsis.

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Poetry Monday: Social Animals

I think I understand why people go to bars
I mean those people who go every day for hours
I never saw the appeal or desire to be
Drunk sitting with other drunks with no ambition
Maybe that was my reasoning. It didn’t feel productive
But to them I think it feels like socializing
I sit in coffee shops, usually reading or writing
But it also feels like I’m socializing
I can talk to someone if I want to or not
I’m still around people. I feel like a part of the world
Sometimes that’s enough to not feel lonely
And people go to bars, so they feel like a part of the world

From the poetry collection Cats, Coffee, Catharsis.

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Coffee and Contemplation: Family Stories Month

Oral tradition has been part of society since humans could utter a string of sounds with different meanings. Family Stories Month is a continuation of that but focused on one’s family. I don’t have many fun stories of my family, but I did recently have my DNA tested by Ancestry.com. It started a little weird because it first said there was a lot of Spanish ancestry. There were many people like me who had Spanish or Portuguese ancestry who later did not. Some of those people like me then had Irish and Scottish ancestry. To sum it up, I think lots of people in Europe were having lots of sex in other countries.

The DNA results on Ancestry keep changing, not because of mistakes, but because their science keeps getting better. It’s possible the numbers I’m about to share will change in the future, but for now this is what it says. 41% English and Northwestern Europe. Most of that coming from North Yorkshire and Lincolnshire according to Ancestry. 27% Scottish. 13% European Jewish. 10% Irish. 8% Norwegian. 1% Swedish. Many of my ancestors settled in the Missouri Ozarks and East Tennessee. I knew I had family in East Tennessee, so this was no surprise. I still claim some Hispanic ancestry but it’s more likely I’d be called Black Irish.

It was fun getting my DNA tested and seeing what components make up who I am. I’ll call myself a Jewish Viking from Scotland. That’s got a nice ring to it. There are other websites that took the information from my Ancestry DNA and took it a step further and listed the ancestors from the time of the Dark Ages and before. That was a fun history lesson I don’t want to get into at the moment. Anyway, that’s some fun family history of mine. Tell me about yours if you know it.