Tree for the Forest
Century Tree, St. Louis, MO
nested concentric,one to another, accumulated. History isboth the quick injury that broke a young limb and...
Mundane Scar
Papi reclines on the couch
a dark shadow in the dim
lighting of the family
room. His finger probes
the shiny skin stretched
like burnt umber smeared
along his sharp...
These Were Our Best Years
We slept better after we invented violence,
some of us resumed the habit
of muffling cries with newly plumped pillows.
We sang the...
Verdict
HENCEFORTH the peerless jury
finds gravity null,
unconstitutional—at last
hereby nothing binds
or keeps us
from disanchoring.
Sweet revelation! Oh
Hurry,
good fearless citizens:
Annotate the textbooks!
Dismantle the roofs
and parapets,
already
we’re unstapling
our bones
are ruderal
dispersing
heavenward
like...
On Cessation
A crow clinging to a reed stabsat little fish. The lake holdsits setting sun a moment longerthan the horizon. Mosquitoes prickwhat bleeds. A...
Landfall
I write my name over and over on the surface of water.
I write:
sleepwalkerbad bitchstar gutssea kittenThe linger of some words on the surfacefreaks me...
This Fear
I am the daughtermy mother neverwanted. Trust was an illusion,how the painting of a blue bowlisn’t a bowl of blue flowers.She twisted rags...
The Subject
is love.
The form is bulbous.
There are echoes of horses,of cranes flying low,their throats’ rumbleas they land.
There is panic spreadingas you age.
There are echoes...
Penelope
Walking down a riverbank, Seine or ThamesI stopped to sit in a wrought-iron wafflechair, the kind that leaves its imprint on your skin.Soon the...
