FACE
My face distorts and dances
in the rippling water.
And a goldfish floats through my nose.
SCRAWNY KID
Scrawny kid.
Lean against your crumbling shack,
And try to paint with...
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...
There is in the Water
What happened here the history I mean thismean thing there right there the bridgewhere they were lynched and who elsewas there and this is always here Ito make them mean something and howcan inanimate objects say...
occupier artclasswindow is crackedopen to let fresh air in. outsidesunny schoolyard under
lovely cloudless sky,the kind of blue beggingto be licked and torn asunderby hungry...
“Woke” Words Purged
“These Words Are Disappearing in the NewTrump Administration,” New York Times, March 7, 2025* Underscored words survived the purge.
diverse litany of...
