In 1956 a dinosaur returns from the deadand enters our post office. Has he eatenthe letters we never wrote?Tonight you and I discuss ottomans.You like them small, I like them large,and divorce hovers over uslike a honeybee above clover.We change the subject. We do that a lot.Subjects have sharp teeth. It’s bestto leave the room... Continue Reading →
A late September Saturday afternoon. The sky godless and electric blue and filled with trumpet blast and statistics. What a tiny scab on this roadmap Touchdown is, but would you look at that stadium! Worthy of the vilest gladiator games. And, now, a crowd of townsfolk appears, a sweaty biological mass of many moving as... Continue Reading →
I skimmed my eyes over the algae to FlatfordAnd breathed in Constable’s lungs. DirtyClouds and gaps in the treeline rest, obscured by hands1 2(And) 3.Our East Anglian-Indian summer bounced in placeOf water-bound dogs and haywains. Painting inPastel over well-revised frondescence and clay. I thoughtForward from my memorialBench to how I might discolourThis moment in more... Continue Reading →
Her number appeared in his hand. He hesitated, then swiped the phone on the second verse of the ringtone. “Well hi, you!” Her voice unraveled him. He did his best to recover. “Congratulations! You really nailed it yesterday. Quite impressive!” “I hope I wasn’t overbearing.” “No, no, not at all. You were smooth and... Continue Reading →
Under the auspicious gaze of the Minerva statue in their living room, Phyllisand Florian were preparing their trip to the Montréal botanical gardens. Theywere retired botanists.Florian remembered his botanical mission to Taiwan and said:“We could re-design our garden with the waterscapes of the Japanesegardens.”Phyllis continued: “The exotic exhibit of orchids, irises, and amaryllis shouldbe a... Continue Reading →
1921: Nearly a century ago, in Tulsa, the city where I grew up, a Black man allegedly assaulted a White woman in an elevator downtown. In the following days, White rioters reacted by burning and destroying city blocks of black-owned businesses in the Greenwood District on the north side of...
All liars shall have their part in the lake which burns withfire and brimstone, which is the second death. Rev. 21:8I puked my prayerssweated in tangled sheets,Shadrach & Meschach’s sisteralone in my white bedunafraid to burn, unafraidof bones consumed by fireasking only to be freeof the saintswhose cardamom syllablesstained your vampire’steeth, to be free of... Continue Reading →
Before it rains in Langtang, the rain dolls puckertheir cotton lips, the satin-ribbed curtains blowwith the rumbling thunder, the shutters of Sherpa lodge pull their cords and the windows are discovered open.The river of the sky lagoons between two clouds, its many-colored reefssweep around in their downward journeys until, at last, they plough the fragranced soil and become mushroom, hibiscus, strawflower—even Java plums and... Continue Reading →
