Poems

I. Water, envious of the cold stone bridge, longs to become solid. II. Flowing under the cold stone bridge, water freezes to slick silver. Looking down, I see the fallen moon. III. Burbling under the cold stone bridge – water - almost ice, seeks to become silent....

hard power engines hot tail pipes, dark tires, defensive bumpers. children, not to be had, dart edgeless through light, invisibly silent lost in the sum. a crossing guard, orange vest & gloves, a warning, not much, a gesture thrown against losses. 1972 Elgin,...

There are few things more dangerous than the solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.

We are far away from the house. Does the house sense our absence? No faucet drip for eleven days. The sink bone dry. The sun warms night from the windows. The drapes remain closed. The walls echo no sound of slippers shuffling toward first coffee. Does the floor miss...

It was not satisfactorily explained to her. Was the runway too short, the passengers and cargo too heavy, the air flowing under the wings too slowly, the weather too quickly turned severe, the pilots caught in a wind shear. No matter. The man she loved for forty years...

All day long I say to you, this is me. All day long, this is who I am, you say to me. This is me right now, I say. The same as you were an hour ago, you say. You haven’t changed since breakfast, I say. A little, you say. But it’s subtle....

The full moon is searching for language, a word to free it from the sentimental cliché of the last hundred lunar years; silver beam, borrowed light, green cheese, honeymoon, and all that. The face of a man has been seen in the moon by millions for centuries, long...

Who could have imagined that you, that I, that we would share earth together for this long stretch of time? What are the odds? Not 50-50 even. A million-to-one? A vast complexity of accidents gone right for the convergence of our histories to become the stories that...