Captain Frank
What you first notice,
his hands cracked and battered,
in places raw,
from dredging oysters,
his bare living,
from the bottom of the Chesapeake.
Category / Poetry
Quilting
These phrases, stitched together, must convey
a finished thing, with some intensity
and maybe some surprise. You take the way
a necktie—one with silky dignity,
accustomed to the better restaurants—
Arachne
I the spider
waiting for the cabbage
butterfly
here among the vegetables.
Strong web
of my instincts
Moviegoers
It’s about forgetting
what’s beyond your few feet of space.
Does it make you laugh? Think? Cry?
Cringe gripping the armrest of your seat?
Journal Entry: Even If It Takes All Night
You’d think darkness enough
to lull, but the streetlight flares up
at the foot of the bed, burns all night.
Some parts of the world fall deeper
into their shadows, and some
shape themselves into creatures
you cannot name. I cannot name
all the reasons why I am unable
to remember my dreams.
Sustenance
Tonight the wind will not let
The trees sleep.
Branches to the ground,
The few squat evergreens
Sway through the meadow
Bareback
Don’t you ever get lonely, he asked.
I understand, I don’t like people either
but sometimes, he said, I just need them.
Walking the Shelter Dogs
When I walk past the adoption cages,
each dog makes a case to be the chosen,
with a bark, a jumping up, some raucous
reason to be recognized and singled out.
Telling Time
Tonight, I stood outside, named the stars
you’d named for me. Dug out maps
that told you how to go. My actions,
you once said, let those stand for me.
Between
trespass quietly
to smell the end of summer
in the sundown trees
and lunchbox rust