This precise hue of orange, that I imagined to be an odd angle of light, refracted from a lost dwarf planet, somewhere, is nowhere to be found, here, where my cat’s bones wrapped in a towel under the grassless drape of the black walnut tree, summered clean sunken among the detritus of last year’s living, … Continue reading →

There is a particular word, lueur, for the slightly sinister gleam at the near end of all things. The morning that never comes. The widow’s walk that is never an accident. The thirteenth hour under fluorescents in a labyrinth of glass. The slow wringing of time into calendars of doleful suns. A lueur is the … Continue reading →

a highly medicated exaggerationist She had a zest for reservationing Indians, driving mule trains through The Muscle Shell, and swore to beat hell; but with a tender kind of cussin.’ I say it was Calamity Jane what leaned the Winchester Model 1873 up against that juniper in Great Basin National Park back in 1882. ‘Archaeologist … Continue reading →

You claim that despair stalks friends, poaching in their teacups and slurring their favorite words. The cold wind tastes of stone. The post office slumps on its foundations. Mail from the last century still awaits delivery, gummed flaps muttering. Meanwhile the wind plunges and plunges with the angst of dolphins hunted to extinction. Shoppers toting … Continue reading →

I once wrestled a rhino in flip flops Pinned him with a full-nelson I’ve memorized Appetite for Destruction And the Sermon on the Mount I advise not sleeping with a bed wetter In an ankle bracelet I have catfish whiskers And a fake ponytail I can eat corn on the cob While riding a unicycle … Continue reading →