Six Haikus
11. One sneeze can kill you Church bells ring seven futures Blackbirds flex sunlight 100. Blunt-rolling squirrels A crow rocks an evergreen The cupola smiles 23. A dog on Front Street … Continued
Poetry
Lament
translated from Dutch by Donna Spruijt-Metz in memoriam Derk Wiersum Having had to absorb a lot of life lately I learned through so much pain that being dead doesn’t seem so bad It is up … Continued
Necropolis
translated from Dutch by Donna Spruijt-Metz in memoriam Joost Zwagerman Woken up in a hut on the Bay of Baratti under a blood moon Barking dogs on hilltops ripped silence to pieces held the dead … Continued
Still Life with Insufficient iCloud Storage
And here we are— sewing secrets we have wanted in some form to keep, sewing … Continued
On the Occasion of Our Tenth Anniversary
Sea-green eyes, skin the color of dust, I come from a long line of fire signs. We seed the open field … Continued
You’re supposed to thank the fumes. To be grateful ||| The Baffler
You’re supposed to thank the fumes. To be grateful for the toxic patch on the rail track. For the craquelure in the asphalt, seeping green— it reroutes you, proffers with each commute a forced adventure. Who’s to say … Continued
Poem That Used to Have Lines From the Tempest ||| Diagram
I have lush grass in my mouth come sit, come mess with my unplumbed sum, let your finger at leisure destroy my mute, my hermetically sealed little baggie of spit. I treasure whatever will stay in the room: … Continued
Amy Pretends This Is Old Penn Station
The way she wears her sweater is so Sunday. If her parents were here she’d say why don’t you go watch Dancing With the Stars. It is every generation’s job to feel deprived. If she had kids she’s scared of … Continued
A Globe is Just an Asterisk and Every Home Should Have an Asterisk
Before a globe is pressed into a sphere, the shape of the paper is an asterisk. This planet is holding our place in line: look out for metallic chips of meteor hurtling through the universe. On my drive … Continued
Photographs ||| Bronzeville at Night: 1949, and in About Place Journal, A Civil Rights Retrospective: 1963-2013
1. Daddy In his last photos he looked unhappy cutting the thick dry ham For Thanksgiving he sat alone eating in the snow under the crow’s irritating call He should have posed for another picture on another day Instead he … Continued
Cathedral by Raymond Carver
This poem imagines the exchange on audiotapes from “the wife” to “the blind man” in the story “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver. The story is typically taught and discussed as if the blind man’s relationship with the wife was entirely platonic … Continued
Diaspora Sonnet 42 ||| The Adroit Journal
I close the shutters, leave a wink of light to keep from burning down my paper house. The seams are creased. I move about in my tattered plight slowly. Elbow on the table, skin puckered makes a kissing … Continued
Says the River to Her Patriarchy
to explain how a tributary becomes a river there isn’t a way but for the tributary to deny it— I deny the very river I deny the paying of tribute grow up, say the men in my life … Continued
My Friend Wears Ohio on a Chain
For Willa Frierson, the whole family, the Kenyon Review’s Young Writers Workshop, and for Gambier, Ohio: the most magical town in the world. Because I came home I became estranged / but in a soft way, like how … Continued
Society
The hunters at the gas station under the fluorescent lights. The man in front of me lets me go because I’m a woman, it’s long been a ruling that women and children go first. Waxing towards full duchess, … Continued
Filling Station
On my way up north I stop to fill the Honda up. I like to time the emptiness so I can fill it at my favorite place: a Chevron with a taqueria in the minimart where the Honda … Continued
Algorithm
The Boardwalk lit up in constellations of tilt-o-whirls and loop-o-planes, and I can’t find a word to express loneliness that brilliant and hard-won. I have a stillness in me that’s yellow-paged and bramble-lashed. I think the word I … Continued
I Am a Spongiologist
I wrote a book called The Book of Disorder I wrote a book called The Atlas of Tics I’m famous in supraliminal circles I wrote a book called The History of the Sponge It has devolving syntax I … Continued
Essay On Poetics Or Early Morning Texting With Orlando
I’m having trouble writing poetry he wrote trouble being a poetry writer I don’t know I … Continued
from What We Talk About When We Talk About Paths: A Narrative in Captions
Path Today: Fresh Path: Another Kind of Path: Current Path: High School Path: Path of Discernment: Public Speaking Path: Path to The Podium: Monday Morning Path: Path of Least Resistance: Back At It: Path: Sometimes a Path is … Continued