Poetry

His beard’s still dark but a little grayer. I, too, have a gray hair or two twisting through the dark ivy between my legs. Honestly, I’m surprised he recognizes me standing up. He looks well, fit, his smile as generous as I remember, all those times on my back staring up at a faded picture…

          Sometimes, we let ourselves believe we’re talking to his ghost. Sometimes, we think memory, its rhyme.           How long can you stay           afloat? my sister asks when he admits to paying his ex-girlfriend’s rent again. He doesn’t care           that she’s seeing other men           and avoids his calls— doesn’t care that he owes back-taxes and hasn’t held…

Where are the flying stars of my childhood? Evenings lit like a glitterball’s sparkle against the night’s dim walls. Their absence is like aging: one less pulse each year. I want my childhood of darkness bedazzled again with shards of light— my tiny lighthouses, my suburbs of surprise— where the shadows of dogwoods and crepe…

DEFINE, meaning “the degree of distinctness in outline of an object, image, or sound,”           sound being some motion invisible to the eye, progenitor to an empire of echoes,           although empire implies dominion, a definition demanded from its subjects,           all of whom are subject to their own purpose, “one that may be acted upon,”           which is…

I’m attracted to the em dash—that bridge across the void— a balance beam—a baton passed across thoughts—the sexiest break—the turntable’s tonearm before the groove kicks in— the “Electric Slide” of punctuation—(it’s electric!)—not an en dash  or a hyphen—an expanded truth—playing the long game—the schemes  between chess moves—all the small mercies—the giant oak on Corning Street …

Not the rose carpet, nor the steady breath of the ceiling fan, but the patch of sunlight squeezing through. You’ve been here before. You’re early. Unlike last time—stuck in traffic. The other passengers in the Keke Napep did what people stuck in traffic do: smile at strangers, tell the driver to change the radio station,…

His smile stretches wide to hide           a familiar, hollowed-out pain, minstrelled, ready to play           on command. How differently he’s portrayed           from others in his day— butternut brown, a burnished glow           lights his torso. Gold vest and grey frock coat,           pre-Civil War, dapper. In this version of the story:           he’s not as a slave working in…

Before she brought me forth, I wish she’d known how much more she’d need to take away, the mom I knew marooned in Alabama. Moves to MS, FL, and TN, and she can’t return without a flat tire, financial fiasco, old lovers making pilgrimage who could undo the curse but instead scrape off the lonely…

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?…