I am the rough fish that escaped the winterkill. somewhere, at the bottom of the lake the light reached me, trickling through a hole in...

He asked her out in junior high, and they were inseparable for seventy-one years—he loved her thoughtfully and sincerely. Dementia had...

His last name was Sugar. At least that’s what I thought, until he wrote the characters on a napkin, and showed me, with his grass-fluid...

How is it up there in your rectory of plated gold? Your arms—torn spaghetti strings—reach down to disturb the guts of what you’ve...

An impractical weapon: it drips, but never gore, and its birchwood hilt will hardly fill a child’s hand. I cannot eat a popsicle, though—...

whiteout near waterville on the way to work, on the way home, a tunnel the road has disappeared, the snow ruts have smoothed & cold, you...

I plod down the street to the corner a walker as my guide careful to navigate the cracks on the sidewalk, heat bouncing off the pavement....

The difference in mourning and morning is you. Dawn takes away anything “our”s, transforms it to “or,” a choice between two, as usual....

The flakes of your love keep landing on my bare skin and dissolving before I can collate them. Two clutches I’ve salvaged are already...

the sun’s a long yellow scarf pull it down to dress warm for the chill

Most Days, Dystonia is a Background Hum Most days, dystonia is a constant background hum, Others, a Beethoven symphony But episodically,...

only the finest of china for this trauma so i grab the best of my mother’s bowls wash it twice with wine & honey before chipping teeth on...

We Watched a Dog Die on the Weekend of a Wedding We sat -my daughter and I- on a park bench eating a snack. A treat after a long walk; a...

after the song “Pink Venom” by BLACKPINK Thick edge of paradox no other appeal to sex quite as persuasive: four women sing syllepsis,...

all green was the name in the house where they lived rose colored it was and full of anxiety hamlet and papa hamlet fell out because...

Then, slumber wrapped my brain in fog. The sun, in hiding, shrouded black, escaped my reach. Atop secluded heights it shone for others,...

brain games With a tiny little hammer And a tiny little chisel I am going to straddle you (The way you like) And crack open your skull...

I’d dupe them all with my clever green disguise, A mere man, mingling among brooding beasts. No—it was worse. For the bar was cursed, A...

Awakening the bed shifts as we turn pastel sheets draped trailing to the floor like statuary a show of modesty overthrown the sun dazzles...

Before when my mother is pregnant with my father’s first wish and second blessing, he doesn’t know how long the cab ride she called for...