The only way to have hope—how can it be?— is to walk into the streets not as a beggar, not as one crushed to a shadow, holding a cup,...

Linger We could perch on the details of this near end.  How I have worn you as my skin for decades, let every sense curve toward a...

Lady Liberty Finds Sand Dollars in Coronado I pay no attention to lovers twined around each other like ropes on sailboat masts.  My eyes avoid their youth, fixed instead on the afternoon horizon—the swath...

Ads “JOIN THE DMV! BUY OUR ORGANIC SALSA!” Burning on filthy subway walls Jerking back, muttering “it’s too bright,” Train coming, train coming A long silver bullet blasting through...

Awakening in Poesy Town This morning I rose from my bed, as if from between the sheets of the New Yorker, the world random as free verse. Today...

Pas de Deux   In our choreography, Dad and I had three types of dance: the shower, the stairs, and the car. The shower’s dance was a slow kabuki-   like...

If John Waters Hung Out in Reston He’d live in our townhouse, with the filthiest bathroom alive— a rust hole in the sink so big it’ll...

Minute shards of glass settle upon the bar counter like finely milled powder The barkeep smiles at no one in particular as if born an automaton No warmth offered...

Doors locked, we hide the keys Jeans frayed across the knees On our backs beneath the stars Basking in an autumn breeze   She spies Polaris, points out Mars They’re...

All the silenced, all the neglected, all the invisible This is not utopia. This is a borderland. This is south of the borderland. This is not...