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...
The Vision of Meribah
I Meribah,granddaughter of Amenemhat,beloved of Ishmael,recite my ancestors’ lessonsso that you, my child, may teach them to your own.
It is through...
Hollywood, Paris, Covid
We both had positive Covid tests aftercelebrating New Year’s Eve a few daysearlier. Her ex sent her a text saying hewasn't vaccinating...
PAIN
Incessantly demanding recognition
Like the penetrating ticking of a tightly wound clock
Is the knowing.
Knowing we shall not be,
Knowing, though I close the door
It will not...
Meuse I
Pron.: /ˈmjuz/
a depression leftin the grass, a shallowbowl, or profound,
a gap in the hedgethe hog trespassed, in otherwords, not the animal
but the space...
Remembrance
The sun sleepsIn the dirt, here.I am less smoke, more steam,The refreshing kind of bitter.
In the dirt, here,We’ll plant our feet and leave.The refreshing...
observant gravity
a sort of protestis underway performedin excellent style bythe superfluity of those who have ever beenbeloved by youwho beat with a hoop-stick against...
Quarry
The sun looks higher here by the quarry
Daylight savings a forgotten grumblefor the sleep-deprived days of yestermonth.
The time is truly 6:49, but soon thebiddies...
Beat
An amniotic lake within meand you, floating
then the deafening silence,static nothingness where I
expected sound.
For a week I am a shipwrecknot split open on rocky...
Late in the Game
We sleep peacefully,side-by-side,except, by chance,when she or I turn outward, to the edgeof our plush and well-shaped bed.
Never inward, it would...
