A buck ninety-nine. If you pull up to the Window at 32nd and Rose And order something cheap but good With a tad more fat than you know you should Have but secretly crave, Make sure to tell them to make it a value meal, And they’ll wrap her in whole wheat lace And stick … Read more
in remembrance of Eun Kang What if it were just called Monday, not Night of Remembrance, not Ceremony or Candlelight Vigil? If this night was a night with nothing to take back? If women did not carry tea lights or pray under a canopy of bamboo? What if there … Read more
At the observation station observers tried observing themselves making observations and were impressed by the results. A film loop of a loop of film being filmed in a loop. For scientific purposes, some said. For posterity said others, to preserve in our selves the making of ourselves, as seen in the making. Doesn't everyone … Read more
How to still the gills until they need to go how to go from the … Read more
It's midnight and the only two people in the green house are watching Tarantino films, the blood on the screen screaming "Get down!" The house shakes its roof doubtfully because the couple should go to sleep instead of arguing about who's the best director, and is Tarantino cool or only a wannabe, and is the … Read more
That scoundrel, man—he gets used to everything. Fyodor Dostoevsky Maybe the moon is full and bright and earth reveals bones, shallow graves in a shallow war. Maybe the moon’s light plays with the meek fire of men cramped beneath a bridge in Ohio as they watch gray chunks of ice float down … Read more
This morning I read Auden and his account of Icarus plunging into the apathetic sea, while I sat in a rocking chair sipping coffee cooled by milk that was nearing its expiration date. Auden has been dead for decades and the sea remains unimpressed by us all. Steve Brightman lives in Kent, OH, … Read more
after you’d gone our bodies uncoupled in the dark I lay in bed and started to think of things that are halved apples pears seeds and the knives that separate them I thought of doors half open half closed their wide unexpected swings into the middle of rooms how they halve distances I thought of … Read more
Falling off at maturity falling out as soft baby teeth brown needles bicuspids brazen Antlers with their velvet loosened. Abscission sounds just like the thief nature made it, takes advantage of winter drought the sixth birthday. Pairs with gravity. Steals … Read more
Swim Lonely one, Curley head sinks rises up for air, water separates limbs, Arm over arm I swim. I need The Pills, have to be exact (the terrifying cost). I am a chemical cocktail, have no idea I am, But Monday morns I line up the … Read more
Love is the loose elevator cable, a hibernating bear, A juggler with fire torches, a blister before the skin rises With pus, a leaky shock on a heavy truck going downhill, A shovel before the hole’s been dug or the seeds planted, A heart monitor without any sound, a juggler with fire Torches and … Read more
My son heaves plywood on the line, where compressed air and staples two inches long find their rhyme: throw a board up staple back, whack, along paneling lines. Throw a board up stable back, whack. No words ever spoken. Stud walls swabbed with industrial glue waiting for nailers and screwgunners to echo and reverb. … Read more
I hope I can watch you grow up to be just like your dad // you can rank above the both of us, he Kahuna // I maka’ainana I will put your head in stars blessed, turn/twist/shine/spin Mana in your palms // a prayer for those dying to manifest into those unborn Kapu flows from … Read more
maybe Copland had it right the first time // we create nothing in wartime maybe all Foster wanted was a banjo on his knee // oh! Susanna, you turned out to be such a slut maybe West Side Story got it wrong // there’s always a slaughter on tenth avenue maybe Rhapsody comes in … Read more
Three beaks ascend at my mimicry squawk, open like scissors to paper-crisp air. Later we find the mother looking serene sheltering her trio. I tell my children to look but do not touch. The father frequents the tree above my daughter’s swing. I admire the color this blue jay brings to a green, flowerless summer, … Read more
We lift our heads from our computer screens throughout the day: Amtrak’s whistle a whiff of the world passing through town. Where would we rather be than at our desks? But the guy who failed to outrace the 4:15 had no job, in a hurry anyway, and we had already flex-timed ourselves home when … Read more
Sausage jackhandle careens between abandoned Radio Flyer, overturned, missing wheel, leg, fin, wing, whatever belongs on its corner may as well give up on two doves pacing in mulch, toasting bread you will never reconnoiter Great Wall Collage. Whisper the dog around (should that be asquare?) the block tears dripping off your shoulders … Read more
1. There are people who love winter, and you were one lover of winter, long nights and repose for a soul dose of Faulkner or Flannery O. Dickinson made a strong chaser, a bullet for sleep in the winter, a draught straight from a shot glass when finally your … Read more
Waiting in Line with You The back of your head, a little salt and pepper I’m waiting to run my hands through— I’m close enough to catch your rosemary shampoo, my eye tracing your shirt collar, the line moving, my hands waiting to move, to follow the curve of your neck. Amanda Laughtland … Read more
Wallace Stevens Joins the Justice League For William Moulton Marston I always wanted to be a member of the Justice League, crusading for the idea of supreme order in a complacent world, even if I had to be one of those “who serve who also stand and wait,” like Lothar, Mandrake The Magician’s companion, or … Read more
Truthful Wishing about Oregon If I had a time machine, I would become a fry cook so I could seduce Richard Brautigan’s mother. I would once leave her a motel room and take Richard with me on mysterious errands. I would feed him on Belgian waffles, French toast, and Swedish pancakes until … Read more
Botched Awareness of Jettisoned Body To say I want you to embosom me with our conversation and shepherd me into latency would be a kind of poetic thing to do though conversation is rarely that unless of course we’re waxing. And if such a thing were to occur I’d most likely be watching your … Read more
Slowpoke Maybe he shoulda paid more attention to his worn out ol’ wife maybe maybe he coulda at least walked the dang dachshund more ‘en once in awhile stupid standard mutt his wet nose jammed into ladies’ crotches LeHew, Slowpoke stupid dead ol’ dawg possibly he mighta put a dish some dishes in the washer … Read more
“If there’s anything I can do,” she said (a response in sum-over-histories* notation) Sure, he replied, do it all, and walked out the door — or maybe it wasn’t a door but the parted lips of the world enveloping him, coaxing every hair on his body to rise with its breath — or maybe … Read more
Tuesday Afternoon Shopping. This one night stand that I was looking for has now wasted 4 months of my life. She looked beautiful on the dance floor, that’s all different on Tuesday afternoon as she dumps a large box of condoms into the shopping trolley. She says, ‘It costs less when you buy more of … Read more
