Blame that last flash and clap, tumultuous, explosive, as if the skies themselves feared what he did not yet see: the yellowed eyes, the protruding brow, green skin stretched like rough canvas over a hasty marriage of joint and bone. When that light rent the night’s dark skirts the stars themselves hid from the monstrosity … Read more
I throw away the slacks of solitude socks of solitude leggings bloomers crinoline chemise lace bib buckram ruff jerkin over-blouse of solitude sash cummerbund foulard raincoat great-coat cape poncho parka shawl shawl top hat tiara beret fedora cloche of solitude girdle garters corset half-slip pajama robe kimono night-gown wrapper slipper sandal Stop I’ll keep the … Read more
I want to dance like her on the crowded floor I want to writhe in music guiltless as a child I want eternal blood circulating like a halo I want to dance like a rising sun in Death Valley. I do not want to live like a shadow in my life I refuse to numb … Read more
The sun is going down—disappearing like me. I, holding on to the light, the last capture of my sight. Soon my blood will spurt like a burst pipe over the warm summer field. The greedy animal will satisfy his thirst. Go ahead, eat me, eat all of me. Do not tranquilize me. Do not close … Read more
1. Someone has to drive What would I do without students, their cans of Jolt and indiscernible needs, their wept-on poems and muddled brilliance? Twitching with meth, slumped in sweatshirts, numb from grandmothers’ slow deaths and boyfriends’ quick suicides, they crash into college like cars into phone poles. With one of my hands, I grade … Read more
When I open a book I am always in a position to find something—information, a thrill, a moral insight, a happy turn of words—but to find an actual something in a book, an object I wasn’t looking for, stirs up an awareness, often an uncanny one, that somebody was there before me. An unexpected channel … Read more
I got called in to a little dark room, windowless. Mrs. Lopez showed me a picture book. Khang, I say. No, river, she says. Liver, I say. Not liver, it’s river, she says. That’s what I said, river, river, river, khang— It’s a khang! She shook her head. Look at my mouth, she says, RRRRR … Read more
The freshly painted green gate doors swing out. The slow drive up the windy hill. Eternity. Where the hell am I. Top. A middle-aged man is standing in front of what seems to be the office. Mom pops open the trunk so I can get my duffel bag. My lack of upper body strength doesn’t … Read more
When baking something fluffy like divinity you always want to allow the eggs to get old first let them sit out of the fridge for a couple days Although I am sure there’s a reactive chemical explanation, I don’t understand the science of it, but it’s one of the few truths my mother told me … Read more
hood of blank sky a white man dragged
behind a ford wrists tied to a strong rope
in the truck cab two men drink rainier
beer the wailings of jimi hendrix drown
out the screams of the dying man
they bury him above a riverbank two
deer watch silently chewing leaves with
blank glassy eyes skeletal white bodies
of streamside cottonwoods standing in
careless witness as the final shovel-
fuls of wet earth are tossed on the pale
limp body
I judge myself deeply, harshly – don’t allow courtesy given others, thoughtless tortured by tumultuous thoughts, ticking driving negativity nails through, aching begging, the merciless obsession eradicated, relentless screaming behind frozen stare, scared floods back like recoiling toes from cold water, endless forgiveness, permission – breathe and be, redemption when … Read more
I cannot muster effort enough to show what is and unspoken there what little deserves and overly qualifies a human to which I am particular. There is a body: made of sinews, contrasting with elasticity – his rubberband arms and legs cinnamon facades made for over-ambiguity – preserving a heart perpetual pumped this … Read more
1. Phenomenon Outcome spirals Through my circuitry, moving To thought, I am Pale, mouthing I do what I am told I am built for something I raise my eyes To whatever draws near, someone Touches me With my own hands 2. The … Read more
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
1 It was summer. I was sweeping in the kitchen, facing south. There was that milling around feeling, children everywhere, my own and some others — that white-haired child from down the road. Hear the sound of hammering, one, two, three, pause, one, two, three — a husband somewhere, working. There is no … Read more
When I was a kid my parents moved a lot, but I always found them. They would carry on as if changing the locks was a game all parents played with their oldest child, to trick them into resiliency. They let my little sister have my bedroom one day while I was at school, to … 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
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
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
“Penn Station” “Gotcha” The passenger looked up to the second story of the brownstone building and pressed his window switch. As the tinted window lowered, his wife could be seen through the sun’s glare off the window of their second floor apartment. She held their daughter in front of her as she stood in … Read more
It happens faster than I can think: shadow, form of man, thrust of arm— My hand understands; flies to my chest while my mind straggles behind, stupidly stringing bits of fact, bone handle standing from my blouse, liquid warm against my fingers, purse vanished as if it never was. Understanding comes as the … Read more
She watched the end of her toes shuffle and appear alternately from under her long hijab. Everything looked blue from behind her veil. She held the blue in her mind and gathered it, pouring it down to her heart, beating hard, a bird caught in a trap. The dry heat of the desert, heavy, penetrating, … Read more
Today Claudette is wearing her pale blue suit with the power shoulders and extermination strength Happy in her quest to win the scent war with Red Jeans Ronnie down the hall. “Did you watch Obama last night on The Celebrity Apprentice?” She looms over my desk, having just greeted me with a few morning … Read more
I. Hess Esser Lunch with Lucas Milas was, possibly, one of the worst ideas Hess had in a decade. The man said three sentences in an hour. And he ate a chicken breast. Nothing else. Hess could not even talk him into an illicit beer. And he … Read more
Minnesota. I am here, but how did that happen? Here is blue and green and white. Song in the air: whippoorwill by day, cricket by night. These are the things that matter most today. And I’ve been here since some once-upon-a-time January, when the frost first performed its wintry dance on my lenses … Read more
