a drug task-force detective calls me   right away I hear in his voice he still believes in what he’s doing:   ‘we’ve been on your parolee over a month pulled him over today 2.5 grams of crack cocaine under the driver’s seat taking him to polk county jail now’   2.5 grams of crack … Continue reading →

I can tell people are waiting for me. Down the stream of my blood they are sailing on a cruise of years. Landlocked in life, they braided soil spirit rising with the corn busy, growing life, they had no use for family trees, except perhaps at christenings and quilting bees.   Seed of my flesh, … Continue reading →

I don’t just miss the deep breathing I miss dragging tar to air,   making space                visible                           what about the heightened                   focus? The way my blood coagulates? … Continue reading →

Time, the flippant jokester Days slip under my feet So quick Too quick They flee Was it me who caused offense? What threat did I administer, To make you run from me so? You sad, sour grape. I’m not that frightening (Much to my dismay) Unless you’ve seen my temper… I suppose I have raged … Continue reading →

The bearer of the burning flame of destiny, Challenger to trial and gauntlet.   Seeking the means to attain ascendancy, Conqueror of the vile, and forever undaunted.   Defiler of prophecy, usurper of fate, An unapologetic villain, striving for power.   Unseen hand, decrees its own mandate, Malicious soul residing within a dark tower.   … Continue reading →

In my head there are more teeth Than mercies—-John Ciardi   You can keep your cornfields, silos, Autographed bibles and gooseberry jam. Bye-bye frozen road kill and frost-bitten toes. I wanted cocktails named after movie stars, The Pacific Ocean, surfboards find the curl In a wave, the beach which is my home And sun-cured girls … Continue reading →

Hear her sudden voice mortified by dirt walls. Speaks incessantly, murmuring a faint song then remembering sunbeams, silken umbrellas pink pearls. She lies outnumbered by acidic bottles rotten by dust and rust. Obstinate, undertaking obscurity moistened by twilight, she cries while with untrained fingers I scan for sensible lines in my ear full of labyrinthine … Continue reading →

Forgive me if I did not give thanks for the setting sun lighting flames in all the windows across the lake, the way love flares and falls to embers, while the evergreens fold their arms and the white birch whispers. Forgive me for all the Creeping Charlie I tore up by the roots despite its … Continue reading →

The Playwright drives a dark blue Mazda mini-van, plenty of room in the back   for all those characters who follow her, those early women flyers knocking on the windows, about to burst into the higher air.   Director of the Writing Center rides her 1980’s bicycle, a white Mesa Runner wedding present from her … Continue reading →