POETRY

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

Pit Stop in Kansas

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

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…

close up of sun
Mercury in Retrograde

You said it was okay to blame
what goes wrong on the planet

Lobster

I suffer visions and many indignities
while looking for the Lobster

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.

An Endeavor of Being Now

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

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.

Me and Other Bodily Accessories

I am not a guide
for every traveler
of loss.

Making Israeli Salad

Now that the Israeli has left, it falls
on me to make the salad.

necromancer woman, witch woman

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

melting ice cap
blue is the color of surrender

you know that
baby swallows make silver ripples
in wild rivers to court reeds?

Good Driver

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

Several someones

a folksome, gruesome opera
of gauze and malcontent.

Electric Eels, Finishing School, Teeth

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

Sadness is a Sin

If my life was the size of my arm, I would stretch it out for you.

Welcome To The House of Static

here is the sky in stop motion, flickering,
a still shot in monochrome

appetites

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