The Santa Anas
1.
from here the earth
is a shade of the darkest
blue before black
i look out the window
and i know where we are
where the desert looks
like the ocean at …
Poetry
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Regarding the Man With the Stolen Past
Imagine a novel about a man who
never knew his early years; it comes across asa fictionalized story that nevertheless feels overwhelming
in the rich particularity of his life, … -
Sand and Bone
(Todd’s Point, Reid State Park, Maine)
I came shivering, knowing how lines of the tide
will use seaweed, and sea-drift, and sea-wrack (and … -
In the Trees, On the Road, Off the Highway
Firecracker in hand, matchbook
encased in the fist of my heart,
a burning car roadside and footprints
leaving soot in a Rorschach parade.Wearing a blanket of leaves,
dark green folds … -
I Brought Mountains with Me to Iowa
but only I could see them.
Others saw a bank of clouds
on the horizon, potential rain. I saw
the Cascade Range,
my mother’s face
face toward them, lit
by … -
In Praise of the 30-Week Ultrasound
A wholeness moves within all half-seen things,
a certain gravity when pigeons call
beyond the eye’s periphery, and rainfall pings
against the windows of the hospital.
We see a face … -
What to Donate
Clothes in cuts of shirts, pants, coats, jackets, sweaters, blouses, nightgowns and robes. Not
underwear or bras – throw these out. There’s too much of her in them to give … -
Can’t Tell You Much
In the frozen aisle’s uniform glare
a tall boy stares. Not through the glass
doors at tubs of ice cream or the stacked
pizzas in cardboard. Through the air
ahead, … -
Aubade
In golden underbrush and old growth, the wood-borer
opens timber to light. The bracken thorns itself against the sky.
By the time I wake to branches falling against the roof, -
Go Figure
In her and her and her I saw myself:
in carved sandstone, a voluptuary,
her neck coiled to face her back, her back
twisted to pinch and raise for inspection -
Thanksgivings
San Marcos, Texas
Around noon the sheriff pulled up at my aunt’s house.
My cousins had been shooting guns
around back. Bullets fell like ash in the neighbor’s yard.My mom told …
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What an Arroyo Can Do
It is possible for an arroyo to hold water,
just as a gutter, one of its definitions, can.
But mine is high in the desert and dry as scorn.The …