When we first moved out to the country,my father burned our paper trash in a metal barrelin the meadow above the stone wall.I believe he thought this was something that went alongwith owning house and land, a kind of self-sufficiency.The match would catch a corner, blue edgespreading, leaving behind a ripple of black ash.After which... Continue Reading →
about this piece As Realities Collide2023 See More in Art...
it was not constant concernfor the troubled planetharnessing her thoughtsthat day so much as the weightof two oranges in a cloth bagslung over her shoulderthe careful keeping to theshade side of the streetvines flowering sun-stained adobecobbles slanting toward homewhere stone steps leadingto the street below markedthe edge of the hot day––it was the market womanfingering... Continue Reading →
Shall we have smoked alphabet today?can't beat g dipped in French Onion sauceand v sparkles while cooking, but I would suggest letting it cool a little bitA dangles alone, make sure you have the tongs handy soit doesn't fall directlyon the coalseven a burnt b is good, the center remains soft, like an appropriatemarshmallow I would... Continue Reading →
Territorial crowsstakeholders in this neighborhoodwhat attitude!objecting to the wandering shoppercawing and diving the saturated dog I've had arguments with them"I'm not going to jump up and grab your nest, okay?"it quiets them for a momentas if they are thinkingas if no human every squabbled with them beforeHey, I understand their language Every time I cross Highway 151... Continue Reading →
rabbit hiding in the bushesscowling at the woodwaiting for the wind to settleand Spring to be on her wayrabbit unwhite,brown, gray, the color of leftover snowable to hang close to the brushto charge out and awaywith hidden knowledge of trafficpatternsthis being is close to the groundbut muscled enough to scatter soil and seedin her wake... Continue Reading →
On the road over Altamont Passwind turbines stir by the incessantgusts that whip through the sere grass.The white towers form uniform rowslike the identical white headstoneswhere two million are interred.When wind turbines die, their bones goto landfill’s dry catacombs. No memorial,no eulogy for making clean energy.Their fiberglass will never decomposeand can’t be recycled.The blades will... Continue Reading →
1.A gaudy omen outside my neighbor’s window,bougainvillea’s flash mob of purple miniskirts.Let autocorrect create the comic simile.Today is like another opportunityfor sinning.2.The Canada Geese on a long sabbaticalfrom their career of migration—they enjoy this new-found park so muchthey may never go back to work.Their maps have folded in disobedience.3.Enough of bad weather, the hot and... Continue Reading →
High in the rafters of Earth,a ventriloquized voice beckonsour species from the first eutherian mammalto the Anthropocene, our hapless current epoch.Régimes whisper to extinctions.My mammalian body is dutifulat its mammogram.I am moved to tears again.The groove in my left breast“tissue sparing.” They said, “clean margins.”What is more powerful than allsocial media in its ferventecho chamber... Continue Reading →
How many times I’ve passed them in the produce aislefearful their unblemished skin concealsblandness, disappointment.I walk away sure they are not as good as they appear.For the first time in our marriage, fruit trees in the backyard,one finally revealing its identity.In summer my day could revolve around this tree.Pears lie on the ground each morning,... Continue Reading →
