Ode to Pomegranates
as winter arrives delicate seeds falling through crimson-stained fingers
Running Water
A pregnant cat licking its fuzzy belly in a warm drizzle -Richard Wright In my shaking hand: a pee-soaked strip of plastic. At my feet, bare and cold on the February floor: a cat. We look at each other. I’m pregnant, I announce. I’m thirsty, she replies without words, turn on the faucet so I can drink. At the sound… Read more →
Tadpoles
hundreds the size of nailheads spawn in what shallows our banks contain darklets in mudclouds clay my brother stirs in fistfuls to sieve through between spaces of fingers here we are stillwater disturbances the canoe slicing into canebrakes the mobile of lures caught twisted in the limbs of trees we shade in we the waterbugs we the herons who stand… Read more →
Let’s Steal A Kiss
These are the days of wonder when dusk runs a thousand miles to meet me waking up in the morning; red and blue clouds pile up behind the mango tree where I hid during the war to escape the barrage of bullets cascading down our roof, where bats gathered in the hot air, stealing the flowers and our breath and… Read more →
Cyclone Approach
Of ominous skies we say we’re under a blanket Rain we describe as if bathed in turmoil at the foot of a cataract Because the world is almost round it wears a belt of humidity Sash might be more accurate I wear a heart on my sleeve Sometimes it is my own heart Sometimes it is a badge Forecasts contradict… Read more →
the breathing sea or autotrophic wanderers
for us so much rests on them resting upon the ocean’s surface— their silent gauzes seeking & capturing light flimsy lung of the currents cut carbons cirrus sea creatures synthesising every second breath some gleam like milk-toned jewels— diatomic each borne in unfair halves which cradle each other tightly but gently enough tiny openings for growth & with growth their… Read more →
Emily as the Whole Place is Dark
The air is suspended. Emily& I imagine we are breathinganyway. We are essential bodies today. We voted. We stepped outof our cages, briefly. The dead moonkissed our cheeks. We are devoted to dying together in this America,but that’s much more about lovingthe Mediterranean restaurant down the street from our housethan it is about loving a nation.A nation is no one’s… Read more →
Pirouette
Brother Let Me Sing With My Knees
left alone to the no stranger of myself I lie in a furrow with my tongue dressed in shouts taken by strangeness my backwards love for birdcalls I whistle back to to cows chewing cud I eat mud for field mice the screech owls that snatch them up my love unmatched for paperbacks soaked in roadside puddles my love for… Read more →
The World, a Crematorium
Fluff my pillow. Draw the shade, shut all the light outside. I am dying of thirst. Place the cup to my lips, Atlantic currents for my parched tongue. I must ask ancestors how to greet the coming waves as joy. Warm blanket. Tucked feet. Sit God in my lap to comfort anxiety before I witness a final wink and breath… Read more →