POETRY

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

You’ve spent a lifetime training
for this.

Ode To the Dove Pt. VI (Avrom Sutzkever)

Yes I am guilty, I’m guilty. A sin was desirable then.
Bring the dancer back to the stalks.

An Endeavor of Being Now

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

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.

Electric Eels, Finishing School, Teeth

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

The Kotel in Jerusalem is Filled with Cracks

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

Dis Place Ment

People have always coped with flooding, and they learned to cope with death.

Clueless & Briefly Gorgeous

I buy too much, for someone of my stature.
could pawn a skinny metaphor to purchase a plump skin.
its reputed in our lineage— to daydream a life that shreds our pockets.

Clotheslines

Ma wrings
a wet world
of colors

Drowning in sky

I have observed, the theorist
I am

Letter To a Young Poet

Do not say anything anybody else has said ever. Things are not “bleached by sun.”

painting of apple and grapes
Feast Of

anger, like you can sink teeth into, candy apple

Tea

my father holds
his favorite drink

Snow Falls from Branches

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

Unerased | Steep Steps

My grandmother asked, “Does it feel like being widowed?”

Pit Stop in Kansas

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

things they won’t tell you but should:

love is a soggy tea stain on a grocery receipt