Poetry

The Viewing

We found the cardinal near the bird feeder: stiff, eyes fixed, wearing the brightest red coat of any bird I’ve seen this summer. With a shovel I lift him from the dirt, show him to my daughter who gazes upon the orange bill, the rigored body, leans in close enough to touch.  Was it raptured?…

Reruns

I search online for causes and find that most are tied to loss. A child, a parent, a friend, regret. For me, the I is lost. The most awful things happen hours after a session, not another for a week or two. The Therapy Curse, I call it, covering the years I’ve lost. Sometimes I…

Two Watches

He’s wearing two watches, one set to the local time in New York, the other in Gaza. In a café with friends, waiting for his tea at the round table, and whenever his eyes fall on the dial of the Gaza watch, he can see the kids of his Gaza neighborhood running in the alleys,…

History Class

At my first history class, the only students attending are the future, the present, and the past. As I step in, the future gets ready to leave, while the past straddles the present, handcuffing it, severing its hamstrings, and dyeing its clothes gray.

Ode to All My Late-Night Great Ideas

The Germans have a word for you—schnappsidee—an idea                     fueled by margaritas or shots of tequila or bottles of vino bianco or rosso, you know the ideas that maybe involve a road trip                     to Miami or California and you wake up in a parking lot in Mississippi or Delray Beach with a dead french fry stuck…

I, Mediterranean

As a child, I hid to read your waves, nothing can lie in water. I wanted to peek through your wreckages, wrap your wind around my breath, I wanted to keep your sand, shells, and all your shores. The water’s reflection slowly peeled fear from my skin, women sang to the ships as if the…