Out of a tin-cold, murmuring black wood Lightly you lope, pale deer, lifting A story from pages of snow Nothing turns in your eye they say Toward the tin-cold and murmuring black wood I bear a display case of blue … Continued
This is Polynesia in the mitten, hidden past the trailers where iron sky meets iron water. We tread beaches like two lovers tread the bedroom, moving slowly toward a point … Continued
No one could tell us how we ended up here. The definition of glass is obvious. It’s glass. And we were‚ like‚ right inside it. A glass arm that had our arms inside. A glass hip. Glass pupils to keep … Continued
Look, up in the sky! Look what the culture is thinking of itself! Two orphans are up against it, ladies and gentlemen. And aren’t we all orphans in some way? Aren’t we all adopted? The illegal alien falls to earth … Continued
The family two docks down, their chatter straining over the talk radio blaring, in-laws, who never had kids, warning relative’s kids, “Too close, kids.” Me on my dock thinking No kids, so that’s the reason the kids are too close, but no breaks. The in-laws: “Stop it. Stop horsing around.” “Oh, go ahead, fall … Continued
for Tom Devaney On the eve of never forgetting I still want to run away from you together or not run but bite or register bionic judgment always … Continued
I. In March, in fifty degree weather, my friend convinces me to walk out across a frozen pond. He slams a log into it to show me it’s safe. He wants my help grabbing an old hockey puck. I … Continued
In the minute it took to fetch the blue bowl from the kitchen to pick the just-ripe cherries, the blackbirds had come. They picked the branches clean, ascending into their own blue bowl. Lacking wings, I look for meaning. We … Continued
Translated by Martha Cooley and Antonio Romani My father’s bookcase was divided by nationalities of the authors. “The French ones,” my mother would say with some solemnity, indicating the most considerable sector, and perhaps the one most congenial to … Continued
No nail to spark the fires, no waists to nip in. There will not be cookery or starguide, no petite or hardiness in lace, hardly an elegance. No celebrities for the TV. No dogeared books on floral arrangement or patched … Continued
I’ve known little bitches like her all my life, their noses and butts stuck so high in the air you’d think St. Peter himself had goosed her. Haven’t I seen her mooning after the fathers like a kitten wanting nothing … Continued
Growing up black white trash it’s not that you Are and you never think you are Part of the home you go back home to Twenty years later and two thousand miles Lord just to look at it … Continued
—MILTON KESSLER What if California wasn’t the end of possibility? Gleaming out past Alcatraz and Coronado— someplace real to reach, if only you could walk across the water. Forget Manifest Destiny. What is ever manifest? What is destined? Today … Continued
Translated from French by Andrew S. Nicholson listen up earthen colors too late your laughter eats the sun for rabbits for chameleons grasp my body between two long lines when famine becomes light sleep sleep we feel so heavy blue … Continued
Translated from Spanish by Jesse Lee Kercheval Leave leave me to do it she says and when she leans down when she goes to drown her face gently in the coarse hair in the dark marbled tangle over skin so … Continued
One year into the twentieth century, eight orchid hunters landed on the shores of the Philippines intent on wresting orchids from their marshy homes. As soon as I could talk, I wanted to be a collector, but of … Continued
When my father broke parole and went back to prison, my face widened with red pimples of hearsay. For hours, I leaned on the refrigerator door, tasting rotten food. I slipped in the woods, stropped a buck knife, let go. … Continued
Drinking egg creams, eating malt balls, she was solid Swedish stock—an athlete for the ages with a steak in her mouth, iron pills sized for cattle in her pockets. She called herself apprentice to the Protestant work horses, but only … Continued
The house doesn’t know of the termite. The body doesn’t know its cancer until too late. The upper part of the shoe doesn’t know that the sole is wearing. The garden isn’t sure why it was planted. The tree doesn’t … Continued
My love wanted a glass of water so I pulled an old, plastic, dirty cup out of my bag and offered it to him to fill with water. My love said that if he were put in a poem, no … Continued