The women in a familyI.In softest cream cashmere, silk drapingwrists of verbena, vanilla, rose.Bronze chargers under china, layersof scent: rosemary roasting turkey, breadbaking. Today...

For Therapy, I Mix Metaphors From a frozen wedge of machine-split pine,tossed on this settling fire, one frayed, martyredfiber curls back and away like a...

Captives Life and time have held us captives— turnedThe moon an imposter in the affairs of the night. The justice-chirping canaries of yesterday have buriedTheir preaching...

Blue Fading to White A wintry wind blewthe color out of the sky that day‘til it was as whiteas my cousin’s corpsecontained in a coffininside...

The Pianist Władysław Szpilman in Warsaw Music grows on wave crests.When the sails of sound are at half-mast,music breaks up into pebbles.Each soloist is a finger...

Change of Elevation When we first moved here, birds—red-headed house finches, I believe,a family—twittering high up in the blue spruce that hangsfrom the neighbor’s yard. You...

ZULU, THE LANCE AND THE LANGUAGE First, the language refused to enter my ear and be understood. Instead I chased words around, words that hovered beyond grasp and...

Firework ScarsI stepped by the waterfall,memories restless, awakenedfrom induced night slumber,drugged with bottle contentsuntil the pain of tears vanishedUntil the misery of wrought hands,twisted...

The Cost of BeliefEighteen thousand dollars a year,a Jesuit tuition fee.How much Mom believedI wasted now that I was an “atheist.”I tried finding Godeverywhere...

Shadow A shadow always follows you,Hollows you out,Screeching a song, telling youYou're wrong, you're hideous:It's insidious, but it's inside youAnd outside, crawling on your skin,Creeping...