The couple in front of me had a Lonely Planet guidebook open between them, and the man behind me was ugly with pretty eyes. They were like waves, the colour of sea foam, arresting because they had a strange light against his dark skin. Continue reading
I threw fire
once. Now,
I keep it all. Continue reading
After the wake, I crawled through town and opened it up on I-84. Free and clear to Harlequin. I was coming off a handful of pills my doctor prescribed. Little tabs designed to help me live through the service. “We see it more and more,” she said. “Male hearts do explode.” So of course I panicked when my pulse went haywire outside the chapel. I fisted the whole eight-day supply and choked it down with a bottle of Squirt. An hour later it occurred to me: Either the pills had performed as described or the gouged-out feeling inside me was real. Continue reading
My poor mad friend
once wild hippie San Francisco
child of Haight Ashbury lofts
with blond girlfriend Jenny
and big dog Waldo
walking like a small glorious
happy to be alive family
with his time in the navy
rolling away behind him now
free for all the world
to raise his fist at the demonstration
to say no to blood wars
and to roam the roads and seas Continue reading
The first time Louie’s hand came down to the mat, six inches from my face, that’s when I spotted it. That his hand was not covered in skin, was not flesh. That it was plastic. Continue reading
I wanted to keep off the weight lost
a few years back. So despite being
only thirteen or so, I ran each night,
streetlightless on my forest block. Guilty
if I did not run, I went out one night
even in a blizzard state of emergency. Continue reading
Palms taller than power poles
that yield neither dates
nor the thinnest shadows
to take refuge in
stand in crooked but perfect
uselessness. And yet, Continue reading
