POETRY

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

Electric Eels, Finishing School, Teeth

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

Going Broke

Winter sat like a wolf
on the horizon.

The Kotel in Jerusalem is Filled with Cracks

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

Aging Punks

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

necromancer woman, witch woman

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

love poem with dead leaves & color

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

painting of apple and grapes
Feast Of

anger, like you can sink teeth into, candy apple

[Zoetrope with Particulates in it and a Newborn]

and then her eyes fully opened — blazed through with strands of mud

beach
On Undressing a Color / On Undressing a Girl

I imagine that undressing a color, though, would be so much like peeling a memory away from the grey and the white matter of your brain.

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.

Mom, in Her Dementia, Steals Oranges

and apples, mackintosh mostly, but any kind left in The Pub
at the Assisted Living Place

Me and Other Bodily Accessories

I am not a guide
for every traveler
of loss.

Clotheslines

Ma wrings
a wet world
of colors

Sprung (April)

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

Landscape with Ash

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

Dear Deer in the Compost Pile

I tap at the alphabet while a single deer
taps at the dirt beyond the brush
on the far side of the tree line.

Sadness is a Sin

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

melting ice cap
blue is the color of surrender

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

Soft Porn and Cuban Pine

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