Bruce Maulden is a writer and former newspaper journalist. A graduate of the University of Florida, he began a newspaper career in the mid-1970s as a police reporter at The Montgomery Advertiser in Montgomery, Ala. He can be reached at bmaulden@gmail.com.

A ramble-minded
Romantic-neurotic chain-smokes
In a cigarette-fogged newsroom — daydreaming memories.
Reciting an enticing play of words
Snatched from thick, spicy air rolled
In paper.

“How come it’s hotter at night than in the day?
And when it’s raining than when it ain’t? Huh, wise guy?
(I don’t know).
“You don’t know?
I thought you knew all the answers.
I thought you was a wise guy from way back.”
— Johnny Rocco to Frank Mcloud, Key Largo