The Stoplight at the Corner Where Somebody Had to Die
They won’t put a stoplight on that corner till somebody dies, my father
would say. Somebody has to die. And my mother would always repeat:
Somebody...
Types of Animals
after Borges
some by branching by bivalve by colony by loping by leaping
some disguised in waiting in watching by blending in motion
some in color in...
Agnes Varda, Bill Viola: Two Poems
Agnes Varda: The Ardent Background
Always in the background of her films, landscape
as seeing
at times through a window.
framed by a curtain
held back by a hand....
Capacitance
Coronary sinus that fills and releases. Cascading
breath falls to basin. Small branches stretched
exhaling temperamental at best. Thumbprints
on frosted glass. Windows outlooking lots. Full
of forgotten...
Here’s How It Will Go
The chest cage and diaphragm, with expansive spirit,
cooperate one last time,
the discomfort at the depth of the intake
a reason to pause, with a sense...
Stay Close to the Willows
Is a country way of sayin’
remain near home,
don’t venture far,
keep nearby.
Once you embody shadow
under the pine’s umbrella
and grace the riverbank,
turn around, go no farther.
A...
Farmer’s Market in Pandemic
The Saturday rite is now a drive-by:
we’re all laid back in our masks
awaiting our turn. The line
stretches far down the street;
no one expects to...
Harbinger
On my walk I notice a hint of yellow
on the arched branches of forsythia
that grow over an old rock wall—
the stones handpicked for fit
not...
Ventilator Moon
A streamlet of breath trickles
into shuddering pink caves.
Adjust the settings: percent oxygen,
breaths per minute, tidal volume.
Perhaps tidal volume charts
the moon’s pull in anxious blood,
a...
the creative gene
my mother says she has started to see things at the edge of her vision:
mice, flies, general disturbers of her immaculate and germ-free peace.
she...
