poetry

  Small enough to crawl in through the pet door to my mind when I’m all locked, so small You nest a migraine in my pillow, gall my hallways like a noisy clock, or, better, You’re a doll and I’m … Read More

  Red-blooded roast beef, ham, haunch           Of venison, creamed corn, custard,                  Claret , it did not matter. They ate they knew not what;         … Read More

  A boy is coloring a picture of his family, but he only has two crayons.   If he makes his father’s face blue, he must draw his eyes red.   If he chooses a fire-colored shirt, the pants will … Read More

  Since he had a girlfriend (now gay), we met just inside the chapel doors, only to descend the stairs separately, like spies, or, in truth, I forget, but I think it was morning & dye still streaked my blonde … Read More

  after Allison Wilkins I cannot tell you how the olive oil is first harvested from my neighbor’s trees. How the cauliflower is cut into bouquets, eggplant sliced and divided like hectares of land. How one-and-a-half teaspoons of allspice compliment … Read More

  Arabic of the hair of my husband’s chest each year a new phrase   aquamarines in my hair tremors of light my husband’s diamond mind,   Gift us, O Day with your curls and pennies sufficient is your evil. … Read More

  I was visiting the capital city of Slovenia, passing through the park. At the edge was a man selling chestnuts, sitting on a bag of chestnuts, inhaling a cigarette with one hand and with the other stirring chestnuts in … Read More

  for Darach   So quickly, this child learns the ways of swipe and scroll. We find him, hiding behind the sofa with a small screen, his little fingers far faster than ours across the surface. Those first weeks, he … Read More

  Night after night this waking, suddenly middle-aged and barely able to drag myself to the kitchen, finding it hard to be in night’s gulf with so much blatant wanting, where bowls nest, fragile and void, poised to accommodate hunger’s … Read More

  The feel of a sheet is called the hand. The feel of a hand is called a plan. Paris is a plan. His petunias are a plan. After the grey spring dawn has found its shopping basket & put … Read More

  Chatsworth Estate, Derbyshire England, May 2012   Having left London to see what was demolished in 1920, which was the world’s largest greenhouse.   Having found in its place a hedge maze choked with strollers and ice cream vendors.   Having shaded and … Read More

  When the task is vast and grim, the gods fit you with blinders— bend your focus to the miniscule. Awaiting no godmother, Aschenputtel settles to the work, bows her head, picks peas out of ashes. Just so, bald women … Read More