Poetry

we held a slave auction in class today—probably not a state-sanctioned componentof AP U.S. History. but Mr. S made a blockout of the front-row desks, cordoned it offwith backward-facing chairs. he shame-forcedTony Miller above us and introduced himas “item #5.” he’d prepared a catalog:a one-sided sepia sheet with Tony’s descriptionand a starting price. before the…

In some dreams it is possible to visit Uruk and to be its kingas I did sensing all along I was a bad king predisposedto impatience and affronted by impertinence and I know nowwhat I really needed was a good friend of the woods to teach me things Yes that’s what happened as I fell…

It is always there, the blurry dot,the mark, so easy to dismiss,between you and the life you’re focused on,though more distinct with white behind it:a blowing curtain, a wedding gown,while pinning bed sheets on a line,a blank wall in a waiting room, and,late in life, while leaning on a shovel,resting, following a heavy snow.

I tie my hat—I crease my shawl (522)—Emily Dickinson is carried crown first through light that hums.Her country is built of two rooms: need and desire.Birds rarely come near. She cannot seeher shoes or the tops of buildings or the moon.She wonders if she is kind. She is as quietas a student in the back…

Here you will feel no ecstasy, no brightimperative to weep, or to give thanks,or to endure. Instead, we offer solacein what’s gaudy, saccharine, timid, tame:in trees rigidly perfect, Christs with too-whiteteeth, a sunset blushing at its own excess.The portraits here preserve the blind precisionof the novice, those who kept on polishinglong after likeness came, whose…

You have to feel your feelings Right now I feel amused, uncomfortable, tolerant,with a twist in my heart, as if I’m applyingfor a visa to the country of unhappiness and sorrowwhich gets mixed reviews on Trip Advisor.In this waiting room, we are all seedy & hopelessand the elephant gray plastic chairs are lined up like…

The Milky Way’s glinting ribbon helps the dung beetleroll his good ball of shit back to the ones he loves.But blind him to the sky with as little as a hat,and he will swerve like a drunk who, if he makes it home alive, might find the family, soured with waiting,gone. Drawers cleared, beds cold,…

I miss the charcoal drawing of gallium that hung in my chemistry class. How the metal whose melting point is below human body temperature was misspelled galium, how the hand cupping the silver goop stopped at the wrist. I don’t think it was meant to disturb, to invoke a caught thief. I don’t think the charcoal spreading…

Here’s where I leave you. A dream, a quiver. A ficklebit of light after the rain. Squint: I can’t really remembernow where I was going. We lick the haze, open ourlips, find again pleasure in what we nibble aimlessly. Seconds become minutes always, but sometimeshours forget the days. There are two threads: The onewe follow…