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...
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...
stars melt in your skin
for R.M
quiet nights held inside your hands like water waitingfor the chance to become your ladder.
you first reminisced, as if...
After William Carlos Williams
So much
De
Pends
Uponthe dazed chickens
Fraughtwith meltwater
Besidesthe demonic and menacing
Icecream truck
Thatcirculates the neighborhood
Withan off-key kilter tune:
(Davidsings-“ dee bee dee bee dee bee boop...
