POETRY

“Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful.”
—Rita Dove
Tea

my father holds
his favorite drink

necromancer woman, witch woman

In my universe, my arm carries a heart and flowers,
my back a misguided quote

All In

I don’t
know why
I’m in the garden
kneeling on dirt

“Artifact,” as Translated from Gluberhöff’s Lexicon

Any still figure at mid-late evening, when the long shadows make even crumbs appear arranged like furniture.

Pit Stop in Kansas

we drove on through
the blue seal of morning as the turbines
turned and winked out their hearts

You can’t make them love you, no matter how artfully you betray yourself

Try not to see your own predicament in every fucking thing.

Aging Punks

Every so often, they add a tattoo
in honor of some long-forgotten love.

Me and Other Bodily Accessories

I am not a guide
for every traveler
of loss.

Electric Eels, Finishing School, Teeth

Millions of Americans have been affected by identity theft. It’s probably the greenhouse gases.

First

Long after midnight, we’re talking about our first time

The Body is a Sin

The sin is existing.

appetites

you quit wearing pants
loaf around your yard
in hole-nipped panties

A Beautiful Thing

I want to roll in this moment until I become its vocabulary
until I smell like the bones
until I am its echo…

Soft Porn and Cuban Pine

It recommended
soft porn, as gentle prodding and petting parent
to parent might calm and soothe the kid.

The Kotel in Jerusalem is Filled with Cracks

We found in his suitcase T-shirts, his siddur, gifts he bought for his grandchildren…

Black Ghosts of Ponderosa on a Silhouette of Hill

Even as the sun warms the concrete
the long nights’ sensual cold lingers in my clothes.

Sprung (April)

I like to think I’m also sprung,
released from the furnace knocks,
done with the heavy meat stews
and salty soups.

Going Broke

Winter sat like a wolf
on the horizon.

Good Driver

Lights on the dashboard spell out
“You still can’t kiss me”

I Garden at the Edge of Autumn

There is so little left of the tomato plants.