Is somewhere to climb to  where the light’s  weak in its reach and not just, as in modern McMansions, another furnished floor. There should be    startlingly aerial  dormer vistas and an unvisited  stowed-away clothes mustiness,  a seasoning of stuff  used by dead people,    preferably babies, like the pram with cycle-sized wheels  and wide … Continue reading →

Well-dressed sons of well-to-do fathers in navy blazers  and khaki pants,    miniature men strutting around  in someone’s image  and it’s not God’s.   A stately sight, these junior gentlemen  gliding in the shadows  of gentlemen,    like putty  in a parent’s hand,  and we’ll hear how it hardens   into family  as promise or … Continue reading →

In the old cemetery head down,  cobbles and fallen branches wait in the fog to trip him.  The gray newborn sky matches stones medieval and modern, matches the scarf tied warmly around his neck. He counts steps as he always does, no matter the season, but this is his favorite time—the thawing of fields harmonizing … Continue reading →

After L. L. FitzGerald’s Nude Woman Reading,                           dry point on wove paper, c. 1926-29   The intermittent creaking of the chair,  the steady drip, drip, drip of the bath tub  faucet, she combs and coils up her damp hair, crosses and tucks her legs upon the rung.   The air’s soft and moist with the … Continue reading →

From the valedictorian, from the salutatorian, from the row of seated conceited professorial professor-confessor types, the nervous flap is contagious. The field frowns, furrows form in consternation.  Though Poe’s raven was black, it’s the white one we watch for, the one we never see that can crush us.   The Raven said it all:  love … Continue reading →

And what is the maple doing now that darkness has covered it with a black shawl better used for a Prussian funeral? It wants solitude over homeopathy. No hands around the trunk like a pat-down search and please don’t disturb the roots and fondle tender parts. Let it shade for those who want shade. Let … Continue reading →

the moment arrives without an omen it crests and breaks upon me and I pinching my nose to save my breath get caught up in the swell   once passed it is past: a slice of history to be distorted upon recollection   time builds shoddy roads hardly worth retracing Continue reading →

A parking lot.  The backseat of a Buick. A lady is kissed with an appearance of passion. The fellow who kisses her quickly  exceeds the reach of his grasp  and she breathes in, preparing to protest. He senses her reluctance and stops,  relaxes his grip, retreats to his side  of the bench seat.         … Continue reading →

Thought it was fun to change hands like petty cash: a volatile few girls flighty as birds dwelling in the margins of other people’s stories like annotations to scripture, sipping sweet tea from glasses that perspired, even in March— our fingertips traced pictures of all the ways we’d parch our desires in this small town, … Continue reading →

When not absorbed in solving      complex mathematical problems rabbits mostly eat grass.   Between measuring the air      with scythes of feathered fingers swifts swim in the downdraught.   Describing impossible geometries      in twenty-seven dying languages evening weasels hunt upon the road.   Gone in the eye of the blink      (headlamp, motion, gorse) owls devote themselves … Continue reading →