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  • October

    September cooling to October stops the throat with a doughy phlegm; a hundred years ago “lung fever” killed thousands, left the rest to cabin fever — then, for whoever emerged from that white chrysalis: spring. Dying, my grandmother took an interest in migration, tallying species at the hospital feeder. I almost believed the evening grosbeak…

  • Virginie Hears a Confession

    Dawn. Ice. Light. Third dawn in the season of ice. For the third time we submitted ourselves to the cold and cramped interior of the black carriage, and in most respects this ride, though shorter, was like the last: Bel Esprit was again dressed in red and wore her hat; Seigneur and I were hooded;…

  • Mud Season

    Here in purgatory bare ground is visible, except in shady places where snow prevails. Still, each day sees the restoration of another animal: a sparrow, just now a sleepy wasp; and, at twilight, the skunk pokes out of the den, anxious for mates and meals. . . . On the floor of the woodshed the…

  • Seeing Wild Horses

    If only I could tell you how wildness-shows the space between us and the green world; how an island is the same island with our presence, but with that presence we lose some hope of seeing, say, a horse, or the dead gnarled limbs of an oak sunk in sand. Edward Weston saw it in…

  • Cleaning The Fish

    Mom says she won’t; we’ll have to clean them, though she used to do it when I fished with dad. Dad’s illness wore her down; I think she felt relief after he died, and didn’t mourn him long enough before she married Sam. I know there is an art to cleaning fish. In ancient times,…

  • Once More O Ye Etc.

    In what heaven or hell do you, Bob, booze? If heaven, there’s gin sempiternal, you wake on a cloud press a button and an angel comes in with an enchanting tinkle or, if you’re allowed in the Elysian Fields (why not? you boozed an epic amount), you’ll wander till you find that stream of gin,…

  • Lines Composed At Hope Ranch

    Twist away the gates of steel — Devo O wide blossom-splashed private drives Along which sullen mouthed little guys In motorized surreys Ride shotgun over spectacular philodendra! O paradise of zombies! O terminal antipathy to twist And shout! O hotel sized garages Inside which smoothly tooled imported motors Purr like big pussies under long polished…

  • wedding bells in 100 words

         she came. i went. i walked. i saw. she sang. she spat. i came.      she ran. she spoke. i climbed. she left. i bloomed.      i walked. she ran. i laughed. she cried. she played. i woke. she      groaned. i sang. she gasped. i shrieked. she yelped. i barked. she growled.      i moved. she sat. she…