Mark it the world is opening up again even the night is lightening up the late light golden-green the hour squall-hued– you come in and ask why am I just sitting in the dark? A quiet room invites recollection the scent of rain the sense of it, also the sheen of it on plate glass– I’m watching till it’s over
Punctuation. Pedantry. It’s not a question but a wall, impermeable by design. The forecast has been wrong all week; I anticipate wrongness now like expecting rain, the hail that fell for hours, you can tell it will by the color of the sky, or at least I thought you can, that doubtful gray superimposed on blue. Hard rain that doesn’t roll off, the wind compels it, impels it. And falling silent, do I repel, or […]
Birds scatter, lacking surface tension, cohesion. They barricaded the sidewalk, but only on one side, turning back it said DANGER. Even a shrug would be too decisive. Nothing sticks, an oilcloth sky, raindrops and seagull droppings. Could have been much worse, but wasn’t
we ran through a forest at night an unfamiliar road an unfamiliar night anything can be foreign depending on context . back-lit windows as heavy-lidded eyes monstrously large behind the trees . a car passing quickly a thought that won’t settle that’s not a bird it’s a bat
Sometimes forget and write September, or some long-past year, the moment’s default, multiverse– Somewhere it is September, somewhere it’s still summer, yesterday bluebird at the beach and honeysuckle– a wash of memory, clean sweep of tide, a commuting. The effect is gentle, soft as this breeze, yesterday’s breeze, still a breeze somewhere, or what will become another, conservation, so cleanly seen, forget and write conversation, again clarity in lapse of memory, saying what I didn’t […]
Frowned upon to write about dreams but I want to say how the wild things arrived, hares, wildcats, hawks– not dangerously– estatically. The subconcious colors the world, if neccessary, decadently– It was a tapestry how they came down from the trees, in medias res, the way dreams go, my childhood home, summertime with wolves, no fear, just floating from the same lack of gravity– not obeying logic, but following something, some unnatural orders, and happily
Too icy to leave, weekend in town, a radio on somewhere, drowsy, staticky, non-descript winter, truly in the thick of it. Each year it still comes as a surprise. Transitory states: is this wet snow, or cold rain? And why make distinctions? Strange dreams this morning, late to the Christmas party, searching for a seat. Today is the day they’ll take the tree, make a note of it, the birds in the hedge by the […]
Trying to use the produce before it spoils, the milk a lost cause, dust rueful on the mantle. So easy to think, if only– but each year knows better, better. How does the cilantro just liquify? It’s cool in the refrigerator. What lasts and what does not? Salt and biterness, but you can’t cure a life. Maybe preserve it, depriving it of air, and light, keeping it for the sake of possession, the fear of […]
Dog star, always there, in the dog days of summer, in these winter hours that pass like small lifetimes, secret, still, enclosed. I forget sometimes that being a tide involves wide margins, sea changes, rushing in and reticence in equal measure– never ever there but always moving towards it. Dog star, still there, waiting faithfully at the edge of the horizon. Not a portent. Not an omen, but maybe an answer to some unspoken longing.
The high was still low. In the shade the cold was bitter, and when the wind picked up– Three arbors of grapes, overgrown, neglected, and some chipped clipping shears. What makes a return prodigal? A morass, deadwood, suckers, shoots the color of rust, dried blood, arteries, and the ashen ghosts of summer after summer. Excise, and find the form inherent. To finish a thing, just one thing, done in its proper season and sequence. A […]
OPTIONAL POETRY 