Poetry

The whites and the blacks are still newcomers. You can tell: the way we claim flags, that we fight. The other nomads were moved on, learning that land does not love humans and is not at home with us, even when it lets us grow ourselves food, even when it lets us house our dead….

She remembers an absence of blue billowing down, playing loose with her, the impetuous sailor her mother warned her against time after time. The light did not invite her to dance, nor shine upon her only. In countless borrowed rooms she swallowed its gleaming intimations. Later, in the dark, she lies on the bed, recalling…

it’s the girl in deep water who will not drown           (drum) come down (drum) come down           (drum) zora’s instrument hidden in the belly (drum) carried across the atlantic           (drum) it’s a mystery to master (drum) it don’t stop           (drum) don’t stop (drum) gotta story to tell           (drum) won’t stop (drum)…

She pays attention to the hair, not her fingers, and cuts herself once or twice a day. Doesn’t notice anymore, just if the blood starts flowing. Says, Excuse me, to the customer and walks away for a Band-Aid. Same spot on the middle finger over and over, raised like a callus. Also the nicks where…

Empty ice-cream carton in a kitchen garbage can. Up all night with your mother. He beat her again. Up all night eating ice cream, you made your mother laugh.                      ly Life   is lone Duke’s hands on your shoulders, you play it again. Cancer eats moth holes through you and you and you.                      ly…

San Antonio, Florida They don’t mow on Sundays in San Antonio. They keep the seventh day for Paz and Neruda, for Simic angels whose wings are made of smoke. And they walk their dogs softly in the morning, so they will not miss the smallest utterance of Whitman or of John Clare, who pace the…

When the lights go out on a peaceful evening, it is wartime. Who pulled the switch? Sometimes                                                             all he heard was water on sand and even the shiplights flickered off, the bulbs swaying emptily on their poles.                                                      The bombers always rose from the horizon invisibly after dark. He dropped a glass of wine….

Teenagers for sure, one black, one white, so when did they have that terrified, high-pigtailed child? in yellow and pink, screaming Mommy, Mommy, at Sherman and Walden as I bike through. The boy stands in the street, you’d say irresolute, but his (good-looking) face is calm. As if I were the child I see the…

Long ago two sisters lived in a small brick house beside a superhighway. The tall chatty one knew the first & last name of every animal in the galaxy. The small quiet one could make her hair grow longer or shorter with no more than a thought. The pecan-colored sister said, “I wish I had…