At the bottom of the drawer lies
a gleaming woman around twenty
smiling with widely parted rosy
lips around straight white teeth.
Her chestnut hair in long waves
frames the lean bones of her face.
The face flushed, the eyes sapphire.
There is a pleasure
in lifting the lid and stirring
ham & split-pea soup
my wife has left simmering.
It draws me out of myself
to set whatever I’m doing
let each day decide what’s best for a broken beast
like me, like anyone shackled to one existential crisis
or another. why choose breath when the murderer
wraps his meaty garrote around your throat?
Continue reading… "“When Did You Decide Not to Give Up?”"as if your life depended upon it.
orchestrate the strings section to interrupt precisely at this moment.
beat an agreeable outcome.
flavorful commerce and furloughed foreclosures.
Continue reading… "tonight they will light upon an idea"I could be a silver butterfly clip in
an airplane passenger’s auburn hair.
Or I could be red-tinted glasses in
a taxi rider’s tan satchel.
I could hold the hand of the man at
the train station, clutch his
callouses like a lover, like a glove.
Neurda called watermelon the green whale of summer.
Sprinkled with salt, I call it the holy grail of summer.
Driving the farm-to-market road to the cancer clinic
for your last visit, let us praise each hay bale of summer.
Like a thatched cottage
on a windswept isle
abandoned,
this edifice too, will settle,
sink slowly, thistle-deep
into loam.
The machine shut down after clicks and pops– the screen
flickered bright then dimmed and faded low into near-
zero invisibility. You said our love had become that,
crying into the dark on my chest. I couldn’t feel the tears,
Like minnows through reeds, two mischievous girls
slip out the open doorway, splitting the slant
rays of sun, scattering to either side
little whirlpools of dust and floating air.
We had it made, my love, and do you think,
When looking back, it could be working still?
Well, thank you, dear. I take that potent drink
Which may protect me from this sudden chill.
I do remember being young and sure,
