“It Is Not True” first appeared in Anon It is not true,that you must reap as you sow.You may wake in a cold sweatwith a changed mind,scream into your garden,claw at the earthwith your bare handsand scrabble up those seeds. You have made your bedbut you do not have to lie in it.No one has…
Category: Poetry
What We Could Not Save
A chick had fallen out of a branchonto the pavement: wrinkled, purplebody no longer than the palm of my hand. It had stubby knobs instead of wings, a blue film over the eyes, no feathersto speak of. I didn’t know birds were born naked as we are. A group of us kids gathered around, and…
Saturday Night After Work
Well wait just a minute, you told me.I didn’t come all this way for nothing, you know.It was Saturday night after work.You had crawled out from between the cushions in the backseat of my car. I know, I’m sorry for your trouble.I have to get home. My hand shook over the key.Your head extended out…
Scalpel, Sponge, Forceps
Help me hold this angel down;you will notice that his wings are beating back very rapidly against the operating bench,almost as though he is aware that he will not live through this procedure. One almost regrets that this is necessary. Pay close attention to his lips and eyes as we work together; watch for dilationand…
Insomnia, My Ugly Twin
She has six cuts on her abdomenand pelvis.It was smooth beforethe pod people camewith their one-eyed snake.Snip snip snip snip snipSNIP.Nasty beast alwayshungry.Sucked out the life seeds.Left behind the sad gas.Full and empty. Insomnia, my ugly twin,every night enters my bedroom.If I lock the doorshe tap dances on the roof.Grabs me by the handhot not…
They Found You Hanging
From your shower. Jesus, Tom, no one does that. Hangs themselves. No one does that. Tom hanging. Christ. From your shower they found you. The gardenias didn’t bloom that spring. My hands sore from all the weeding and I had to go see the baby elephant at the zoo without you. At the funeral, all…
Living Under Water
You are very deep in an ocean. If you swimyou can live a full lifewhile drowning. You will get marriedto a bottlenose dolphinand wear a coral ring. You will give birthto yourself,but it will be so tinythat you lose itin the water. Your love will die firstand you will be alone.You are a brave little…
The Woman I Love
I can’t be certainBut I have a suspicionThat the woman I loveHas turned into a lizard.Last night in bedI brushed her thighAnd thought I feltA crinkled lizard’s hide.She had a crest instead of hair.A lizard’s tongue Darted from her mouth–It happened so quickly I barely spotted itBut I’m pretty sure it was there.I know it…
The Climbing Accident
Tragic.The way she dug into him hard with her crampons, her ice pick,working her little cleat to numbness against some pointed part of his anatomy: rise & fall, rise & fall, rise &fall, as deep in that dark room from which old childrenhad once emerged, she felt only the T-bar of pharmaceutical barrenness pressing against…
Blurring
“Blurring” was previously published in The Cathach Take off your coat.Let it fall from you.I want to watch you do that.I’ve been thinking of you too much.Now, I want to make you real.Do that and come here,Take off yourself and hang it on me.Fall from yourself and don’t think.Stop talking.To name this momentIs to sap…