There is within a longing for the deep hours. Ones where entire days disappear in a blink and worlds are discovered, word by word. Those simmering moments when day paints…
—after Bachelin Always an angry wind. Sky like smeared ink. Marsh grass bent away as salt water creeps in through the canal. Cypress knots poked up along the path, no…
—Antieau Gallery, NOLA So few bones amongst the stars they are like stars themselves floating against dark sky, their flight peaceful, impossibly buoyant, featherless. What could live sparrows do to…
The whips fed on the blood of my forefather’s backs. Soaked it up like needed sustenance, leaving the drops for the soil We cried into the sea, bodies floating there…
No, they are not all-American boys, but black & brown shadows, shaping their futures, wishing for magic No, they are not powerless, not broken by an unjust society, making them…
i told my children the silence is very clear there is less sorrow in the world than there could be we are upon the fog and not under it we…
i told my daughter there is a small song a loose skin a lip bend an obvious note or two in every day that could be folded into the minutes…
i told my son what you want is to trace the first joy with your big toes be playful with it remember that is the one thing you never have…
—gold has been struck in Buenos Aires, to the west I Roosters disregard the sun, scream at mountains that long ago emptied their bosoms to milk the earth. Now…
I do think of them, the couple sleeping on the steps of the church up the street from our hotel. I passed twice, on my way to the cafe and…
My wife tells me, pulling weeds between squash and okra, the cardinal that sings outside out our window is Cody, returned on the anniversary of his death in the form…
—after a painting by Douglas Bourgeois Woman stands in front of woman, one in purple underwear, the other ghosted blue, naked, crazy psychedelic wallpaper showing through her breasts and…
I crawl into your photograph, inch open the cupboard behind your shoulder, pull out a chipped glass kept for summer root beer. I hate your diet kind. Tastes like how…
I have committed my share of sins, most just average ran-the-stop-sign-when-no-one-was-looking kind of sins. I’m only human after all. But I’ve done things far worse when the devil inside stole…
The Pink Lady dangles, ripe, trembles beyond reach. I stretch my arm up, ripple branches, wade through waves of leaves, paddle twigs aside. Still, acid green flutters about my empty…
Start by emergent terrain over stiles and steps assuming a posture. Slow more demands on your body for streets lined with trees. Estimate to the walking and other vegetation take…
What lies in the origin of names for this circumference it begins with water. None of the details are explained, but, if our dwellings are made from the earth, what…
Somewhere near anywhere Georgia where the Methodist churches are every bit as big as the Baptist, where roads run parallel with railroads and the freeway straightens out the horizon, lies…
Impoverished peoples give generously of their patience, graciously accepting assorted hand-me-downs: the sequined vest, silk tie, high-priced pair of heels. Soon this stiletto heel will bore holes into the earth…
could you put away the window? the light is arrogant & i’m too obedient to hear orders & not follow, i’d stare straight into the sun if i thought the…
My friends, we say happily ever after ss something to clutch at– For longer than a year, or two, whenever the honeymoon becomes foreign sand. I say it doesn’t mean…
Strap-hanging in a subway car with other commuters, swaying. Bumping hips like pickles shaken in a jar at each bend. Wheels abrade the air. Jiggling portraits on plexiglass show men…
Awhile tonight I’ve tried to keep in the rut, not trip. Sometimes cedar branches flip underfoot, swiping my shins. A stream’s unburdening itself. Overhead a split tree’s squealing in the…
All I really want: to hide between the sheets of my childhood bed, sleep until the sun stops coming up. Could I walk home if I had to, if things…
Let the world know to whom i belong, for my eyes are hers and there lies her beauty, she is as dazzling as the moon, brighter like the morning star,…
Mijo, if you are to be water in a river, be the kind that sinks deep into the soil, that marries the roots of live oaks on the bank, gives…
It’s a strange thought that when you die your hair stops with your body. Your fingernails too. It’s not just a not-breathing that happens, but a not-growing. And I can’t…
Foaming and violent as the wave, we echo of beatings taken on shores unknown or known too well. The sea is as young as it is sage, as seasoned in…
Loneliness has found me In the stillness of the night I reach to touch your hand… But your heart has taken flight. This lonely place was once a home So…
A hobby is the boy hunched over his match and Marlboros in back of the bleachers, trying to belong. A hobby is a box of crayons barely used, burnt umber…
I stand outside my self You across the table drinking something bitter – Me slouched diagonally, stirring what’s in my cup, stirring what’s on my mind or yours. Here I…
I’ve read of people who measure light as it refracts through holes and sprays patterns on a screen, a probability wave, the numbers a kind of mathematical Christ. If you…
black shingles silver turbine that hasn’t spun doesn’t spin or spins very quickly it appears to be standing still two chairs separated by a small table hold fast in want…
there is the silence to be thankful for there are shooting stars and pulsing satellites the dogs don’t bark into the night, that’s a plus still, they stare at me…
London Film Productions, 1936 “Stand there and look beautiful until I notice you.” —a line from the film If I could transform matter with a word or two, Erasing…
[question asked by Christina Hall] What the drugs do, what fear of a break-up leads us to & back— no matter suits we wear, what textbook recitations tell us, we…
a light rain is falling. perhaps, like the trace of a breeze it will bring a fresh spirit of peace to a world that’s imploding. shattered seeds scatter, soft, floating,…
Gray cloud spray Creeping over the light of day Dimming plans Tied hands Hearts Broken and bound They see half-gone Never to be found Wishing they were dug deep Under…
An inner coming away, beginning over again, an outer rending, cracked in twain. Thin, flaky crust of earth pie, four and twenty red-wings rise to cerulean sky. A birth, a…
Through stacks of bones his eyes did wade, a sea of broken bodies piled. Ezekiel breathed and flesh was made and soon the place was running wild. New lives restored…
