Memento Mori
It is time for putting away – and yet,
An aura lingers over a photograph,
A card or two.
Of himself, there is hardly a sign;
Red roses in the vase blacken
Category / Poetry
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 –
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.
The Thief
When I stepped out
into the purpled night air
even the rain smelled like you,
Molecules
She sounds like cobblestone when she sleeps
but wakes early, before the grass the burning
bushes or tiger lilies, only the roots of our
willow are awake at this hour breathing,
Dionysiou Areopagitou Street
ancient marble frames
wide cobblestone,
hills and trees
as if
a painting
Just Past Wisconsin Ave. on 4th St.
I want to be someplace else
like the restaurant my father
drove us to when I was twelve,
downtown with fish tanks
For what it’s worth
If you want to measure your salt, bake.
Bake until you develop a crush
on the green ceramic knife and
linger at the kiss of good chocolate
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