The Birds Busiest Before DawnNorth Carolina, January 7, 2021
America, can you still hear us? Caged, mournful,what songs echo empty streets after all ballotshave been...
Settled in the Gray
Dust weighs down the roomgiving an unfocused appearance, yetsomehow adding emphasisto the few items that remain:the soft table in front of...
Losing Sight
You were the first person
I reached towards,
A single, shaking arm
Plunged into the thick
Fog of fresh grief.
You pulled me through
The first awful snow,
The first...
Morning Class in Washington, D.C.
A sparrow collides, fallsglass to concrete
Beak opens, body spasms.
A student looks:me, bird, back.
She wants instructions.
Touch the birdto do what?
Stun it...
Feathers in a Folktale
The rabbi told the gossipto rip open a pillowand release the feathersto the wind.
“Now bring them back,”the rabbi ordered.“Every single one.”
Scattered...
The Ballad of Alice Hortense
Some sweet morningI can’t say whenThe sun’s gonna melt my days awayAnd I’ll flow beside the knowing riverTill the rushing...
Positive Vision Quest
Dig your many trenches of attrition where you must.The inside job comes right from the gutand nowhere else.
Happiness is when what you...
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE FROM MY FORMER SELF
I lost everything:the contours of the body I knewthe housethe identity of wife/motherhalf of a couplea name that...
Winter Solstice
We drive in the darkpast the open fieldsinto the neighborhood:Millions of lights on the housesin the trees—the world a-twinkle with hopewhile overhead a...
Street Scene
Early evening heat rises frompavements, from cement and asphalt,carrying a scent slightly sour,slightly acrid—oily and tar-like.
Outside the café, beyond its fenced-intables, a large...
