I never had the guts to rip a one-night-stand off
or actually, I never thought of doing it at all, back when I was single. Continue reading →

The doctor laughs when I tell her my plan
was to give birth in the back yard, like my cat did her kittens
that it just felt like the safest place to me right now. Continue reading →

Don’t bake me a birthday cake
this year.
Let’s go to Wawa and
buy a carton
of our old cigarettes Continue reading →

old oil stays old oil jewels stay jewels i face away from a city i cannot Continue reading →

during late nights, speaking
to my cat, swearing he
understands me, when
she was alive, my great
grandmother called my
father a good for nothing
nigga, not knowing what
he would suffer through Continue reading →

These semis
are prairie
schooners:
sailing west,
speeding past
cornfields, barns,
frontage roads. Continue reading →

I threw fire
once. Now,
I keep it all. 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 →

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 →