POETRY

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

If America is Babylon / and you are an exile / newly arrived among pagans / Catholic, ‘Ngolan, Black, woman / you already know how to pray

necromancer woman, witch woman

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

The Man

the man is stayed bent over the canvas
of my sofa. the man is me the man is him
self and I bring down the whip…

Time Travel

I count my homes—
those of my scattered youth
the sanctuary of our young family
the intermittent rest stops
of apartments and vacations.

REVENGE SCENE

Okay, picture this: We’re in an elevator. The elevator shuts down. It doesn’t matter where we’re going, only that we’re alone.

Landscape with Ash

You are strange, my mother said, dwelling on the past.

Good Driver

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

i do not want to wait until it’s too late

the strands of your hair on the bathroom tiles aren’t sketching defeat. that’s you spitting disease in the face with another day you’ve woken up to.

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.

love poem with dead leaves & color

I would always rather be happy than
dignified. Rather held than held
in awe.

The Body is a Sin

The sin is existing.

I Garden at the Edge of Autumn

There is so little left of the tomato plants.

things they won’t tell you but should:

love is a soggy tea stain on a grocery receipt

Drowning in sky

I have observed, the theorist
I am

An Endeavor of Being Now

We stop doing dishes while
a mile unwinds
from the tree outside.

Observer of the Patient

Her brown eyes,
how a fig
considers itself.

Snow Falls from Branches

Should have found a job by now; should have slept in the night;
should have boiled old coffee before noon.

robertson quay

how does an afternoon turn
on its axis?

Sprung (April)

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