Out

of darkness an outline traced on the bedroom floor by a naked bulb overhead heavy with light, drawing me in- to its promise that every curve will be love-handled until one, beginning-to-end. In such a place, am I free to bend forward […]

Social Distancing

She dedicates her hands to a strand of fig leaves coiling them about her waist until isolated from nakedness. He stands apart, declines his eyes so as not to witness the disappearance. Now, they hide in themselves an expanse of strides (six or more) which can’t be crossed by some bridge of flesh as if […]

Libation

How light these glasses we raise to ring in the New Year or praise the newlyweds whose lips hold love with such ease— an effervescent tease of gravity with the lift of a wrist. But that’s levitation—a turn of ulna and radius to elevate a kiss of sky as if the stars are saturated with […]

How shall we escape?

I sat at the kiddie table for 25 years before being lifted by an extra leaf. How strong my desire to settle there, to rest in this place of adulthood. But I couldn’t keep pace— their saying so little with a wind of many words. What could I do but pass the cheesy potatoes, hand […]

What are your multiplied sacrifices to me?

Don’t you see this scarlet trail is for you to follow? I pour out a path not taken. Why do I suffer licking dogs, the incessant buzzing of flies if not for you? My body’s a banquet. Come feast at new moon until full then burn what’s left outside the city walls or wherever […]

He shall be your fear

Solomon built his temple in twenty years from cornerstone to final pillar topped with pomegranates. Mine is taking considerably longer to construct. Each cubit a measure of quivering, each quarried stone a shudder. You may knock on the decorative doors of my dread, walk freely on the ornate floors of my fear, but what I […]

The moon will be abashed and the sun ashamed

Do stars dream? Have nightmares of celestial bodies naked before a class of sixth-graders? Wake screaming, gasping for air, grasping at cloud covers? Or do they only daydream, disappear in broad sunlight to explore other worlds where they forever glow above first kisses, never fail to receive last-chance wishes, always guide the lost home? Maybe […]

Is the axe to boast itself over the one who chops with it?

We are wood. But first we are trees. We are soil, loose and turned over. We are the earth that spins and spins. We are the sea vast and volatile. Occasionally we are the staff, held out parting waters producing a dry path to the Promised Land. We are not, however, the hand and never […]

Watchman, how far gone the night?

Do you behold a band of light on the horizon marching home from war, engaged no longer with those fingers of darkness that dig in at the edge of a field, drag people to a precipice from which they look but never see? Dear sentry, don’t let us be wombed forever in black, tortured by […]

From day until night you make an end of me

Eyes watch as you send the scorching sun— an army besieging a city. There is nowhere it isn’t pressing in. Dawn’s become sin, a damn shame. Everything’s now aflame with your touch. The sand, the pavement, the car door handle all hold your anger. Shadows have become strangers. Shade offers no retreat from the heat […]