what does it look like? how can we be sure of the holographic wirethe fishing line tied to the back of the boatwhich trolls and twinesinto spectacular space?how can we be sure it won’t scare the fish away? in the dream, you are on the boat,not my father. you tell me to cut the wire, let the fish goyou and i threwthe tackle boxes… Read more →
In their native language the elders have taught me how to say, I hear your skin darken. To be that animal is to make godless music with the wave of my tongue, a series of cymbal crashes in the orchestra pit. You stand on the land bridge separating the villages while sliding the edge of a blade upwards along your… Read more →
On the second floor of the white-brick building they repeat your name, We appreciate the concern expressed in your message, but we have exhausted all available options.one among hundreds, like the rogue cells multiplying in your blood, We regret to inform that no further interventions are available at this time.until you answer presente, I am here,I am still here, and you rise… Read more →
With his light skin, my great-grandfather evaded a lynching in Little Rock, AR. He who does not illuminate monstrous in cover of night / smuggles a trio of sons / passed burning poplar / passed snapped neck. Bundled flesh freight / secluded in burlap laid across steel truck bed / This fair passage the weight of witness / Devoid of… Read more →
I have a moon inside of me.It’s a rare disease, I know. When I was young, I mistook itfor religion, the way I would glow when my moon was gibbous. I examinedmy illumination in the bathroom mirror while my older sister banged on the locked door.“Mom, she’s taking too long!” she’d complain. I knew I couldn’t explain. Sometimes my moonwould… Read more →
Seated in gray swivel chairs sharing teawith a friend beneath the industrial sterilityof corporate phosphorescence, she declaresthat all consciousness is lightabout which I agree but don’t want to admitbecause it means that when in dying,as my grandma shed the opaque fastenersand began to gleam, I held fastto the steal locker of my father’s pain.He wondered how anyone could havelet his… Read more →
If we pluck our worries out like pin feathers barbed to chicken skin, one-by-one, free ruffles from bones, will we know each other underneath wings where every fear fanned, plumed in russet and cream, crowded with nits and fleas? From stripped neck to tiny clots of declawed fists, we’re whole birds undressed. Still, we divide— you, barbecue smoke; me, smoothed… Read more →
I was seventeen / when I devoured my first / car crash / the warped metal made my eyes / roll back / and laser headlights shot out of my / hip bones / I never sleep on my / back / because the cars in my guts / spark against each other / and if I / twist /… Read more →
I’m feeling a bit tipsy after a margarita, almost too good tequila, and a beer before that and the freak thunderstorm this morning, though why it’s called freak when they mean surprise I want to know, and I’ve been reading about the saints. I want to know them too—if anything is to be called an aberration it’s the death of… Read more →
I can see by the fresh startle in my grandmother’s eyes that she’s slipping from this earth. All my words float up and pop like bubbles before she can grasp the luster of their meaning. When I mention the needlepoint crafts she used to make, my grandma looks confused, shakes her head like she can’t imagine. My voice rises against… Read more →