nocturnal, elusivearmour of scalesthis is how I grow upeach summer half an inch taller each monsoonpeeling shallotsplucking scram berriesburrowing into poetry he fingers my bellyhere here herethere is a baby in therehe says, before I get drunk stagnant red pool burstinto rag clotheswe washed and hung dryin sunless annexe on weekend zoo visits children jeer […]
1. The sacrifice is loss of the familiar body. 2. The prize is the freedom of flight, a new face, and pristine unknown form. 3. The mummified pupa unwinds. 4. Inside the chrysalis, space between touch, the pupa dissolves. 5. In tomb, light becomes lighter, determined to quicken, turns and hardens. 6. The waiting, five to […]
I know I am the parasite – I pulled those weeds. Tore out the shrubs where the skunk used to sleep. My hands in the earth where my ancestral violence seeps, its muddy mouth belching bitter heat. This is my autumn apology. I wake and regret the milkweed I murdered before it could seed. […]
The curve of each treeis a record of windand sun, a memory ofwhat the Earth said.Each river winds the same,encoding memory in erosion,creation in destruction.In this way, thingsare already bookswithout language. I am a dust storm of a thousandthousand particles. I am suspendedin air, I float on a current of sunbeams,I am always falling down […]
By Abbey Gate did they wait, hives of humanity confined in a makeshift holding pattern, their hopes in hand, desperate for rescue, a shimmering mirage that appeared at a distance but that never arrived, in the event outpaced by a resonant blast shuddering the earth and imbruing pavement with crimson puddles, hatred’s sudden signature. Elsewhere, […]
I remember to request no straw at lunch. The waiter asks whether I’m doing so to save the planet. Yes, in fact I am. He smiles and nods, settles for a breath onto heels, then toes. Heads off for iced tea, unsweetened. Waiting on the Summer Special, I read an article about the Counter- Enlightenment, […]
The flowers lose themselves in grieving and each petal falls like a day that never was, but we all agree, should have been. I am furious that halfway through my mother’s service I can think of nothing but a cigarette; did her life mean less to me than nicotine? Shall I think of her now […]
Kids ride bikes along the paths in Falkner Park on a warm spring day as parents watch from nearby benches. Couples stroll across freshly-mown and edged green lawns, recline in the shade of oak, sycamore and plane trees. American and Australian flags rustle in the breeze outside the house facing the park as the homeowner […]
And Now, a Word from Violet Beauregarde I told you I was more of a gum girl. But you offered something I thought I should want, so I didn’t refuse. I was a child, after all. You reminded me of someone I loved: cane on cobblestones, slow mornings in the park. It was a lie. […]
Red drips from the moon, like water off the glass leaving wet rings on our moving box coffee table—I’ll buy a real one in a week or two, sometime after I pay the internet bill. According to the Bible, when the sixth seal opens there will be a great Earthquake—the sun will blacken, the moon […]
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