I see your clothes laid out on a bed:an elegant dress like a soft skinwaiting for you to enter itand go to a funeral. Even from here I can seethe fabric is soft, good quality.If you’ve left your dress on the bed your bodymust be close by… A larva enters a cocoon, emerges— Black butterfly,…
Blood on the Moon —James Ellroy I thought the demolition derby orsoap box derby or a roller derby, anyway,was where I would accompany my friend Pilar. I thought we’d be out the doorwhen I mentioned “derby”, but not on this day.She just wanted to spend the hours at home; join the anti-social corps,maybe some quality…
for Miroslav Nikolov In the year I graduatedfrom West Daffodil Sr. High Schoolthere was so much romancein the hallwaysthat, by the end, the powersthat be—weary of it all—cancelled the prom. This forcedus to explore each other’sundraped bodies exclusivelyin such automobilesand private homes as our districtafforded. The moral hereis not what you think. It isn’t reallyabout…
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…
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