Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini accompanied by the roar of two plastic dinosaurs from the back seat of the car the rain compounds the dark and traffic inches along I sent the package to the wrong house, the old house this is an uncertain endeavor what is mine, what was mine you are unaware in your carseat watching the world melt into discrete globes of red and white and green clinging to the windows […]
these days are mostly dark a trick of latitude headlights, brakelights strung like beads throughout the hills— everything beyond them the arras of night even knowing well the trees, the park even seeing them aglow in the low strange sunset not one hour ago I am now uncertain the cars pass and pass by like electrons in their tracks there are no stars there is no sky just an aperture thrown open an expectant thing […]
The spiderwebs are all that is holding this together everywhere now in these odd days that exist between summer and fall the same stale heat or frost at dawn the sun ceding more readily the punch hole moon the geometries of birdflight anything could happen when did that become a threat?
After the rain watching the chickens deliberate in the grass a small gecko working its way up the palm cane a flash of guava at its throat this sultry, verdant place— we all sleep easily but lightly the soporific ocean the balmy taro fields water pooling like mercury around the alien stalks a dreamscape a floating afterlife earth made sky the heaviness of air suddenly palpable— strange to step out of a life so abruptly […]
Slow dawn over the bridge a dark gray sky that dreams of other colors, softly, dully, mirrored in the window panes of flat-faced houses perched on hills that descend precipitously into the lake, so still this morning, no trace of movement, no speedboat wake, no curl of smoke, nothing to indicate life save the houselights, so warm and abstract at this distance— the bridge span then extends into a tunnel clear passage that obscures the […]
little bird waiting for the others ready for a fight against frozen nights the frost-laden dawns heavy mornings where the sun is loathe to rise I’m a little late to replace the feeder you wait on a bare branch still and small as a leaf for the pink glass globe of nectar of life itself snow begins to fall is it right to intervene or like all else is this kindness guilelessly but still something […]
it’s those in between days now the shock of cold at dawn but then the old familiar heat red flag watch east of the Cascades the fires taking off late the spiders out early even instinct stupefied it’s time to accept the tomatoes on the vine have gone mealy and sour there is a cost to holding out too long a loss in holding on I take the chicken wire off the garden beds and […]
This is a language I can’t fully speak but clearly these waves break the way they break with intention. I couldn’t remember the topography of this beach, thought rocks not sand, misplaced the tree that straddles the void where the yellow clay blank was bitten by the surf, although I’ve been here many times as myself, and as someone else. There must be a shallow bar where the waves are breaking, beyond that, the steely […]
I watched the bear in the meadow and felt no fear a vignette at sunset not really a trait a descent tomorrow and already the night is rough against my skin animal misgivings lumbering in the tall grass the wretched unease of an eve
we took a vow of silence but it was anything but silent rivulets of water and thunder at the base of the falls— we tried to find stillness but it was anything but still filigree alder leaves flashing in the breeze the slow sway of pines and so we abandoned absolutes in lieu of ablution the staggering coldness of the river glacier-fed my heart beating again
OPTIONAL POETRY 