Poems

He woke up in the morning with a roof over his head. No surprise there. Everything quite dependable. The roof was there when he went to bed. He woke up in the morning with hot water to wash. No surprise there. Everything quite dependable. He washed his face with hot...

I. Two days after a mass shooting, in a distant American city, I go to our local mall to prove that I am brave, A police officer guards his way among tables alert for alarms. He ignores me. I am disappointed with relief. I am not suspected of being dangerous. II. A...

poetry is a small door into the vast world

Our kitten has very personal opinions. It wants to be here. It wants to be there. Why? Nobody knows. Least of all the kitten. Climbing on me at this moment is an especially personal choice. No permission asked. Yet permission granted. What desire seeks satisfaction?...

What does a mirror reflect when placed before another mirror, itself or the other? What do you see when you look out at the world, the world or your reflection?     w  

Our electric sweeper commits unnatural acts, creating what nature abhors, absolute emptiness. Switched on, absence happens, a whirr of depletion, a surfeit of vacancy. Air rushes out. Dirtdust rushes in. Fillfulment. That’s why I bought it. It sucks.

Autonomic Stepping into my doctor’s office, a masked woman points a gun at my head, pulls the trigger, reads the digits of my human form of fire. I pass. The right range, to a degree. Too hot, my skin would liquify. Too cold, my blood would congeal. The genius of...

You know the rules. I say to you. We are not supposed to think certain thoughts. Or if we think them, we have a social obligation to remain silent. Which thoughts, you ask. You know the ones, I answer. Did you hear that? No! That’s one of them.