Poetry

in all things, sonny boy, my father advisedwhen I complained the mulberries that dyedmy lips the protuberant shade of a girl’shad left me with a stomachache.He ascribed the quote to Socrates,his source for all words to the wise.But how did one acquire the wisdom to knowwhich mulberry on the tree that shadedour rented summer cottage…

Driving behind the slipstreamof a truck, I wonder what the ruckus is,and pull over to the shoulderwith the radio off and the radiatorticking down until it clicksin rhythm with the ticking of their wingtipsand that mocking, ridiculous,bickering caucus begins to sound like bliss.It isn’t music, or worship,or even familiar, but the words itfills me to…

Parted, after thirteen years of shoutingand silence and three kids. I wasthe middle one, the one in the middle. Sundays he took me to the movies,to the luncheonette, to see the freakson Mermaid Avenue. Have I erased my sisters from the story?One was still an infant,the other Mother’s ally. It must have been winter. He…

She sits on a beach blanket,Gazing in her vacant way From the shadow of a striped umbrella,Talking to herself, The future a doomed planeYet to take off. I am a baby, sitting Buddha-likeBanging the sand, She is young, beautiful,Stranded in the past. Wisps of her hair lift in wind,The years splinter & fall away Like…

Go ahead, tell the one about the body& how it has been crafted: a house you’ll someday make a home of.Built-in bookshelves, bay windows, light on every side. You are carpenter & foreman,architect & owner. You’ll come to love the sloping floors, the doors stickingin their frames. All yours. Brick by brick, rebuild: toenails, toes,…

Someone’s in a Hawaiian shirt againout on the parquet, doing the white-guy danceto Celebrate good times, come on!, one palm cemented to a sudsy bowladorned with mini parasolthat will end up between his teeth like Carmen’s rose then raffishlyplanted in some woman’s hairand she’ll feel fancy and adored. Who crowned the piña colada gateway drugto…

Don’t get jealous, she says, flicking her cigarette out into the coldand closing the window. I watch the snowflakes blowpast, study the piles of books around her bed. I haven’t readany of them. A human body, laid open acrosstwo pages like plucked wings. Circles of constellations. I thoughtI could be the hero, when the streets…

The ark is barking baby barks.The hems are hawing while there’s sawing going on.Who is that high up, stemming and sterning? We’ve got barrels of loosely packed potatoes,We’ve got the first thick leaves of greens plucked and rolled,We’ve got the got we need to get on with it. If I’ve cleared my throat it’s because…

The air is full of smoke due to regional wildfires…Call 911 only if you see active fire or have structure fire —Austin Police Department The city smells of smoke though i’m toldThe fire’s elsewhere. the fire’s always elsewhere,Until you can see it, then you’re runningToward it or more likely, away. untoward, i know,The coward in…