Begin
Mystery who wanders the basement.
Mystery who kicks at the screen.
Mystery whose cowbells mean something is close
to appearing, to appearance.
Earth—Silence—open, don’t keep shutting
or turning mysterious (refuse to …
Poetry
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Still Life
The ocean can be so trite.
How can one escape wanting and failing to describe and so capture the feinting
one-two
punch of childhood?
I enjoy cranking up the heat … -
Second Person Plural
A man lives in an old house converted to apartments.
There is still a servants’ staircase, but now it
leads to a blank wall. And the walls are paper,
the … -
Departure in the Key of Restraint Minor
The car was packed, the boxes taped and labeled,
and a babysitter played go fish on the porch
with the son and toddler daughter.
The windshield gleamed. A chip, thumbnail-wide, -
What You’ve Been Given
They have given you the name Obama
even though it isn’t yours.
The woman slicing cake behind
the counter her son wheeling through
the market loud when he sees … -
The Last Bite of the Emergency Apple
Silver Canyon, Santa Catalina Island
You take the last bite of the emergency apple,
while the teeth-y skulls of Barbary goats stare up from dusty shale,
from boulder strewn creek beds … -
The Difference Between One and Reunion
Repeating the sunrise, the chirping bird
fills itself with the world, sings
it out in a puff, bob, and whistle—
cacophony to the bee in the flower
nuzzling, the thirst … -
Letter from Dakar
beginning with a line by Fernando Pessoa
It is night. It’s very dark. In a house far away
a red sun has drained into the sea.
From the city I left, … -
Romance
The uncorked bottle waiting
to lead us into five uneven
glasses of Bordeaux because
you are you and I am nothing
but the cheapest kind of date
still able to … -
Prophecy
Light over water
turned it brown,
particulate with sandgulls fished in the light rectangle
bobbing heads, down and then back upI had thinking about Cassandra
her dream-sorrow
done with feeding
the gulls … -
Stone Soup
The note sent home said
we are making stone
soup–soup of the poor–
soup from nothing–so
please do your part–bring
a stone–a carrot–
I sent three carrots–
a bag of … -
Beach Walk, 1972
for Matt Miller
Focused on unraveling high tide’s
trashy embroidery, we foraged ahead, doubled
back to our dad in the morning game …