Day 4—Family Mart Pastoral From this image @spaceliminalbot A convenience store, Family Mart, beckoning, fluorescent-bright, photo-shopped at the end of a well-groomed dirt path against a lovely pastoral background… a grove of trees nearly obscures the tall lime-green & white roadside logo sign to the right of the building. Otherworldly, neon against pastel. I might … Continue reading day 4- Family Mart Pastoral
-day three- Sweetgrass & Salsa
I learned the word Pentimento at 23, eating chips & salsa reading Lillian Hellman’s layered tales about real people in troubling times and one which, once the truth bled thru, I later learned, was its own counterfeit on canvas or, false claim to proximity, anyway, attempt to type over a certain story, not really hers, … Continue reading -day three- Sweetgrass & Salsa
Day 2-Roads, I’ve Written Them
Shouldered a futon all the way from The Bowery to Brattleboro Left my high heels in a box by an alley door, saved myself From bunions – and probably more Times when the compass pointed east I looked west and wondered Ticket on a table, I said No thanks Rainbow Room, moonlight swim, panty hose, … Continue reading Day 2-Roads, I’ve Written Them
So It Goes
Elephant walk life back then forth one two three slow pulse rumble You and Me So it goes steady, see what swirls around us snow on the trees birdbath tumbles background noise pops - flares truth telling -foibles take things slow forward, back possum track and so it goes Winter fools day sky winks … Continue reading So It Goes
Old Trees, Level Distance
Based on an 11th Century Landscape by Guo Xi NaPoWriMo 2021 Preview Prompt: Ekphrasis Friend, I’ll meet you on the bridge In the mist shall we walk together? Last year we were young when we said goodbye Now our hands resemble twisting branches You stoop where once you stood tall, jacket threads trailing My hair, … Continue reading Old Trees, Level Distance
May 30 Elemental
Elemental My cousin was burned in the corner of his garage, fooling around with matches near the gas can when he was 8. It happened the same year when another cousin on the other side of the family died in a garage fire at their Florida home. That boy was a baby. The news crackled … Continue reading May 30 Elemental
May 22 Drift
I Blacktop driveway, back warm Skyblue holds the spinning world. You know clouds in animal forms Giraffes, running dogs, a beautiful woman’s hair rivers behind her. She disappears. Perhaps She walks the creek behind a mansion’s dirt path broken by fallen trees, rusted bicycles that lean along eroded embankments shuddering with snakes, brown birds. Air-ripe … Continue reading May 22 Drift
Dear Madam
We’re happy to write from the Department of Extravagant Gratitude (D.E.G) to congratulate you on your recent extraction from the clutches of despair. We understand that the Safflower feeders are emptying and filling up again and that you, good woman, are keeping the finches well-fed, able to chuckle again at their quarrels on nearby branches, … Continue reading Dear Madam
May 11 Stone Streaked
From a cottage by water, out the back door, into a woods’ wavering musk, Mayapples umbrella up out of decay. Buried alive inside, I’m drowning in crosscurrents. Tolerable? Perhaps, on a day also glimmering springtime, but no. I stride out of the trees, wade a meadow stream, begin an ascent I want to feel the … Continue reading May 11 Stone Streaked
May 2 Make Light
Open your eyes. Scan the present dark, seek shapes in the shadow, and welcome yourself there. Lift the weight of dreams, the dog that ran out of view into tall grass, your dead father’s shouldered silhouette against the coming dawn, then rise to full extension in the morning gloom, breathe. Sigh deeply, stretch toward the … Continue reading May 2 Make Light
Early Morning Poems 