Nothing morethan a glimpseof another white-belliedcooper hawk at rest along the interstate,or a no-traffic evening,that feel of heading homeas if nothing (else)had ever happened. Oh forgiveness,& understanding. Let us say grace. Let uscall it that. Now, together. Read More in Poetry...
The vibrancy in that small cafeall of us concerned mostlyabout breakfast. Around the corner wide sky for milesthe land, yellow-brown and hardand being city folk from the suburbs we were silenced. We spotted the familiar from the road.Coneflowers, wild sage,cheatgrass.Saw black-chinned hummingbirds, and a skylineof sandstone cliff shadowshuddledas if in conversation, prayer,or... Continue Reading →
Under the triple-laned lit up turnpike overpass,sharp-tipped weedsreach through weathered rocks, as if unawareof how hard someonetried to stop them. There is growth under everythingyou’ve driven past,another WaWa, that bagel shop,the Costco station open at 6AM. Familiar curls of highway gleam in the pre-dawn,and on the radio,a slow jazz movementafter the newswith promisesthat an upcoming interviewwill offer a glimpseinto a better way. At the traffic... Continue Reading →
each saguaro pillar in this bare-but-full, sparse-but-ample hill-side forest is a bone in a body i didn’t know i had. whispers surround me, their austere guardian presence like tribal elders confessing crested wisdom—the tangled gift & barbed curse of knowledge, & it’s the same as when the wind gushes her secrets to the border collie... Continue Reading →
With fallcomes deathin the form of brown leavesloving the wind for a final time.These pastoral morningsbuilt of red and orange diorama sidewalks,and bright black reflecting puddlesof clogged storm drainsgurgling at passersby.Afternoons ofwalking hand in hand,the only ovento keep fingers warm.These are the early nightsof rainy applause, hissing, and staticcombing through the tangled marigold stalksas we... Continue Reading →
1Sing your psalms to the west. Bestto throw your prayers to the Pacific,if it will have them. The tepid Atlanticdoesn’t listen, and the elder gods are wearyof the tiny, tinny words of men.2Force your body to ignore the circadianchirp of sleep. The lullaby whisperof truth is best heard in the dark,in the rustle of bare... Continue Reading →
I didn't want to call it daycare for the adults. First of all because it was at night and misnomers really ruffle my feathers. And second because it sounds childish, which it isn't. I settled on coaching. Reasonable adults get coaching for all kinds of things: relationships, jobs, workouts. And...
My wife and I share a hospital gurney,trying not to fall off of it,unable to sleep.It’s a Friday nightand there are drunks in the wardall around us, crying out. Shrieks,appeals for help, confessions.This is what limbo must be like.Dim lights on and off,phantoms roaming aboutin the gloom. A door swings openand the black privacy curtainsflap... Continue Reading →
Because I cannot write a poemabout the cat that got dumpedfrom a moving car last spring,cannot translate the momentshe froze in the streetas I ran across traffic, haltedthe cars, saw she had peedall over her white fur, a corpseof a cat as I held her in my armsfor two blocks, freed her in theconfines of... Continue Reading →
I wonder sometimes what I can doabout all this messin my house, my yard, the world.I pull the garden cart out,trundle over to the weeds,but the dog bites at the movingwheels, grinding me down. So I sit on the grass instead,and he satellites around me while I growrooted, enervated. Bees scurry,and clovers blanket out beneath me.Some... Continue Reading →
