Winter Feels
Today was still one of the wintry feels in my city, which may be a large one even by the standards of New York...
Juba
crouching at the great river
watching school teem so heavily
walking from this bank means
nothing
New Rochelle
wheresoever that road bends by that farm
we go not that way
our mothers say wheresoever he may walk
turn him to hell and head home
Who's in Charge?
The photo slides out of the envelope first. Its edges are worn from age, a thumbtack hole in the top right corner. The colors are muted...
Faux Fur
Couch scrolling in Seattle the summer of 2018, I stopped at a post from Hey Alma, a Jewish and feminist online magazine, in which a woman...
The Detective in the Frame
When he wakes up she’s there: the girl who always gets it in this
story, sprawled on the bed or floor in an incriminating manner...
A Short History of My Reign: II
An insight into the mayhem
surrounding my descent
can be derived
from a high resolution
photo of my corpse
reconstructed by court...
The Indiana Jones World Adventure Tour
Before our whip lesson in Utah, at Arches National Park, David Clockodile—the short, stocky man who'd been running The Indiana Jones...
Rabbit/Coyote
I remember during those Vietnam years how a lot of things had become easy that had been a problem before. In most particular, it was...
First Day of School at CMI
I submit poems to seven places
say hi to Anna who found a place near Brandon
see the broken pieces of turtle shell my husband found...
Johannesburg, 1955
Not African, this heat to us, just
something that we fled.
Any pool would do: strangers’,
owners overseas. We swarmed...
Saturday Afternoon
What I know is what she chose to confide
to my mother after my father had died—
how she turned to retrieve her purse, the young man...
Custody
It was one and a half days before I had to go to the county courthouse. Spring was the daffodils and no color from the tulips yet and...
Disambiguation With Fire Trucks at Elsinore
One day, you’ll have died fat and happy,
bloated cheeks caked in make-up to animate your face;
there’s nothing vatic in saying this in...
Thérèse Dreaming at The Met
Thérèse is dreaming at The Met, eyes closed,
her left knee raised, revealing white panties:
Balthus claimed that the only thing exposed...
Power
In a long ago classroom, physics was invented
by a bald teacher carved from rocks and clouds.
He stepped from behind a podium and bid us...
Elegy for No One
This morning I can’t unread
How the onion the leek seller
Summoned to retrieve
The corpse of her son...
Refuge
I’m in a country of refuge
lovely lawns
always a warm embrace here
not that I know anyone
but the days are sunny
everyone has projects...
Chasing Shapes
I met her at the park on a sunny day. She had violet-coloured eyes. Contact lenses she ordered from Malaysia. The pupils were bright like...
You Think You Have Me Pegged
I want you to know it wasn’t like that.
We didn’t meet at a bar.
When I met your fiancé, the scene was so unthreatening, unassuming.
It...