December 2024 There is usually a wave-gnashed sea & someone lost in it, or a tree hewn down for a cross& a stone rolled away from a tomb, the hymn holding both storm & balm,but here the lake is a calm leaden gleam, long seams of ice soldering its edgeto a frozen shore. The sky …
He was born too soon and almost too late—my boy trapped in my womb—blood singing and hot for lightbought too dearly, the air beating its fist in his chest against a sealed door.O blue of the blood unsuffused, blue of his blue Vishnu face before his first breath. The cordbroke too soon with him still …
Smell of mothball and sweat and gin,the secondhand wool suit your father wore while he paced all night in light rain.Smell of wet salt through the sliding glass door; on the cinder-block deck, step-step and turn.Two miles to the south the plug’s been pulled on your slow inward torque and returnto the womb. Here, your …
says the Delta agent, so I condense, concentratingon making myself colder & smaller like the last tear hung from my chin as I leaned downto kiss you goodbye sister, yesterdayat your service.I will never forget your face, puzzled, on the satin pillow, nor the winceof its complex pleats. I will never forget your voicein the …