Poetry

Young Sirens

Twitter: If you had a mermaid phase as a kid you’re probably bisexual now How did I not understand when I swam with my ankles crossed to make a fin or when I asked my friend to touch my arm, my skin? She wrote love you xo on my ribcage in black pen. All summer we…

Flow

From the roof of the horse barn, shingles of ice begin their irreversible skid. Hoofprints frozen last December appear freshly stamped in muddy earth. It’s been winter so long, he fears the thaw. What will become of the shadow-self that glided beside him, after the Chevy was parked at the Marathon station, and they skied…

A Homeland Walks Home Alone

—after Ghassan Zaqtan Dawn breaks slowly here and the rosefinch makes its ablutions in the nascent light. Dust has passed us by as has a westerly wind, and now the quadcopters chatter their morning songs. Minarets are strewn about the city awaiting a proper burial. The shepherd prophets are long gone, dear poet, but the…

The Cellists

For a few months, I lived in a place that was cold. When I stood at the front door, in the foreground I saw a lawn covered with snow, in the middle ground a house being built, and in the background mountains that were white and craggy, like clean teeth. The house being built was…