I was sitting quietly -
you didn’t see me, or
perhaps it was like always;
it was more like I was
not there
never there, unknown
invisible non-offspring
you didn’t know
didn’t want to know
the me I was
way too much for you
too loud, too childish;
you weren’t allowed
to be a child, so why
should I?
So I sat, the not...
A bouquet sat centered on the kitchen table, my eyes studying the lead crystal vase that had belonged to my mother. The etched wide square vase was so heavy, I dared not carry it with one hand. My mother’s voice echoed in my head – two hands!
The vase...
Hidden on kitchen table
behind a pillar of salt,
she, in buttoned up white
blouse with starched collar,
pepper remains aside,
spice too hot for tongues
lashed harshly by his words
bitten and chewed up.
Given a choice between
the two, perhaps salt,
though I am compelled
to forego both, unseasoned.
one in the drawer
I hope grandpa’s not drinking
grandma died
5th of June
two years back
midnight blue uniform
and a gold badge
black shoes
shined to a mirror
big gun on his belt
curtains wave
in the drafty old house
he gets up
worn slippers
and an old robe
turns up the heat
tops off his coffee
with Irish Whiskey
sits back in his chair
runs...
Over the crest of a hill, I drove. A first glimpse through a fog-veiled light beam, headlights illuminating a field of diamonds, glittering the bejeweled roadway, but no…
My approach revealed broken glass, strewn cut-edged shatters reflecting the light.
High beams joined the moonlit sky across a mostly barren landscape and...
poetry is the torn sheet
the single sock
the bedspread stained
with cum
it's the roach
in the bathroom
the one you can’t
kill
it’s the footprint
in the rain
the barstool
waiting for your ass
the goddam glass
waiting to be filled
Something has hold of my house
rattles windows
drops branches forty feet
cats frozen mid-bite
heads hover above feast
roof intact-more debris I’ve not seen
a blow hard wind, a gust
Smattering of wax over cake
my brother blows hard breath
covers fire, saliva
extinguishes candles, no one
balks at eating blue frosting
Elephant huffs sand across cage floor
hay gone, trunk-finger...
both over 60
you feel young
perhaps 40ish
you look at her
as if you’re 45
but she knows
you’re not
if she looks closer
it’s at your wallet
I see you as you
are, love you
we are the same age
A woman sits beside me
on the park bench, she
has snow white hair and
wrinkled pixie-face
and deep sea blue eyes
she is waiting for the
bus, she says
to take her elsewhere.
Elsewhere is where I want to go
as well
though
the park looks good today
in shadow and sunshine--
unlike the people, most of them out of shape
big...
we smelled the woodsmoke
before we went in
old timers sitting in chairs
by the potbellied stove
in worn jeans
and old ballcaps
passing a flask
with a thick dent on the side
eating potted meat and saltines,
mouths shiny with grease
behind the ridge line, a truck driver
backs his truck
into a barroom's parking lot.
A girl, standing in front of the
bar, puffs on a cigarette.
The barroom door swings open
and shut as
a pizza-delivery man
exits, and
a bird, on a telephone line, dives
and disappears from
my sight--
all of which
has something to do with me
but
I am...
I was real
nervous talking
on the phone
luckily
the pretty neighbor
came out
and I stared at her behind
to calm down
I’d like to introduce
myself to her
but I’m really anxious about it
I’d have to do it
from behind
I went on a Christian dating site
it’s cheating on my wife
but it’s ok
because it’s Christian
1
The quilt in Nana’s house had blue flowers
on a white background, smelled of soap
and fresh air, straight from the clothesline
2
Nana could never sit straight, Parkinson’s
robbed her of posture and speech, shaking
hands in the lap of her blue flowered dress
3
Hollyhocks grew by my grandparent’s house,
blue flowers on tall vines tied...
she peels an apple
the paring knife slicing
long red ribbons
that fall on the counter.
I lick my thumb
turn the page.
there’s a faint hint of wood smoke,
logs pop
in the fireplace.
I drink the last
of my coffee.
my hand shakes
just a little
and she tells me what she has
planned for the day
thought
he was tough,
and
he was,
and he was also
a good six inches taller than me,
but i caught him
off guard when i lunged at him
on the
bus stop after school.
we were maybe 17,
and he’d already been scouted by the Mets,
so that should
tell you how big he was,
but,
like i said,
i caught him off guard
and...
I am but a thin piece of pliable metal
wrapped tightly around myself
whose sole purpose is to keep it all together
tax documents, court room exhibits,
a page or two of insurance paperwork
I am adjusting slowly to the light of day
having spent most of my life locked away
in a dark cabinet forgotten...
drunko
calls his
girlfriend
wedgie
because she’s
always
up his
ass about
his drinking
and she’s a drunk
herself
drunko never fails
to remind her of this
when she starts
her nagging
it all usually
ends with the police
or really good sex
there is a thunderous noise
of a jackhammer somewhere near
accompanied by the rhythmic pounding
of steel beams being driven deep into the ground
Mother Earth is badly in need of a root canal
but without the courtesy of a Novocain shot
she kicked and screamed as a child would
in the dentist chair
but it was...
is where you’ll find the crickets making music
for their mating rituals
it is also where you’ll see the slithering snake
and the chipmunks cheating death again
you’ll find the sleeping dog
having his summer day
and the towering evergreen trees
that have been there forever
the frolicking fox
the gentle gecko
and there is a spot just on...
The dog and I stopped
near a wood.
Heard a whistle
from deep behind the trees.
A call the dog knew
but not me.
With dog and duty
I returned
to feed on treats, paychecks
and pats on the head.
The dog since died and duty done
I stood outside the wood
and pitched a whistle through the trees
to see
if the...
michael brown lived to a ripe and comfortable old age and died of natural causes. his name was never mentioned in the press. living in poverty he wrote a postcard to the president begging for money but never sent it. it was composed in his flat in the bronx....
the gray matter in my brain
and the gray matter in the sky on this rainy day
melt together forming ugly gray shapes
on an ugly gray canvas
in my ugly gray mind
do you mind if I am unexceptional, colorless today?
it’s not that I am uninterested,
it’s just that, it’s not in me today
I...
I walk
under cornflower skies
in late August
shoaling waves
land on shore
and die with a whimper
leaving tendrils of foam
that sail the wet sands
the taste of salt sharp
on my lips.
there’s a boat far out
I feel small,
left behind
as I watch it disappear
over the horizon
A woman sits beside me
on the park bench, she
has snow white hair and
wrinkled pixie-face
and deep sea blue eyes
she is waiting for the
bus, she says
to take her elsewhere.
Elsewhere is where I want to go
as well
though
the park looks good today
in shadow and sunshine--
unlike the people, most of them out of shape
big...
he was
drawn
to this bit
of graffiti he saw
written in white paint
on the side of a building.
it was
in an alley,
and it read:
“fuck the world –
and fuck you if you don’t love it.”
later that week,
looking to get the words just right,
he
went back,
and
when he
got there, it was gone –
not
just the words
and
the wall,
but
the whole
damn...