A Little Green
I hoped to burst into leaf
(Having read it worked for her)
My toes sunk deep into brown carpet,
Arms branching toward the ceiling –
Category / Poetry
Twice Unlucky in Love
Twice unlucky in love, Grace
never said a word about the dazzling blue tumors
bubbling in her stomach.
Proud Ohio stock, she disbelieved in doctors.
No hospital, no morphine.
Career Change
The air is gamy and thick.
My skin slick blisters
with sweat. Mosquitoes
drone in a ditch. Dragons
fly above a murky Mekong,
The Thief
When I stepped out
into the purpled night air
even the rain smelled like you,
Plums
Language has a flavor.
Imagine tasting peaches
and listening to the canary’s
acoustics; me on the porch
Poem for Ishi
Imagine being the last survivor
of the United States of America,
your people bounty-hunted
by invaders from across the sea
The End of Things
So tired she
can barely pull
her suitcase
down the airport
Triolet for a Sailboat
You took us out in your hand-built, gaff-rigged sloop.
You showed us how to trim the jib, hoist sails,
tack into wind, or run through the rip-tides’ hoop.
You showed us the ropes on your hand-built, gaff-rigged sloop.
The Daily Wheel
I can’t deplane from the daily wheel,
grime glued to its ball bearings.
That wheel turns trapezoidally
and squawks louder than a thousand bats!
Discharge
When the war came,
it came to him in flashes,
abruptly, like something
convoluted