Half the pleasure of disguise is finding oneself recognized, known not only for the shape assumed to suit a particular masquerade but alsofor the untold fittings, auditions, rehearsals, and touch-ups the latest ensemble betrays.In his harlequin hostess he glimpses the girlwho prowled the wings of the Jellicle Ball, who scarred a Phantom, tusked a Beast, …
Across the street, Trail Manor flows in purple italics on a camper besidea seasonally perky house. This is heaven. Pajamas at the bus stop, yoga on a strict schedule, a covert but growing gratitude for sloth. Who’s walking with me?Children I love. Yet I long to be a bare blue between clouds, not looking down,not …
The gods of summer grow fat in their swelter of heaven, Squatty, drunk on the sweat dripping from bare breasts.And I grow leaner, or as lean as the heavy years will let me, Staking the dahlias, trimming the yews, edging the mossFrom the terrace stones, my back barbecued under the wet sun. I’m on my …
The closer to the torso, the better. Endangered: fingers in a point,nosetips, every blooded sword,the knife’s ricasso, the cupid’s bow of lips,a Roman nose, the dog’s upturned gaze, the placid expression, the fierce.Toes hidden beneath sandals fare better: Every mother knows this.Somewhere, a breeze so strong it stirs the stone robe’s folds.Imperial porphyry: Understandthat of …
Statement—held till it melts—I’m sorry. We’ve come to in a dark green house, under slenderfurred eaves.Far croak of the chough, wrinkle of bats.The sun brushes the larch needles, sweat beads a tiny copper kettle—it burns my palm, it is cold when I lay my palm on it.In this room, three walls of loosely plotted novels.And …
And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. —Genesis 32:24 A man came upon Jacob in prayer and put him in a headlock, and when he wrestled free,the man tried to use a single-leg takedown, but Jacob was too quick. —Oh, choreography of prayer, the …
Sometimes you wake me from my dream with a low, trembling moanthat rises almost to a scream before I wake you from your own.Then you describe it in detail, as if to make it come untrue— the smoke or silence or betrayal that just occurred to you.This morning, though, you didn’t seem to want to …
Then there’s crush hour, which comes and goes on quieter tires. Again the traffic slowsas residential streets congest with Fordsthe same age as their drivers, rolling towards houses they will pointedly roll by.Their low beams are embarrassing the sky.The orangina sun has ducked behinda middle school, and will come out to blind only the girl …
It’s been way too long since I sat on a handrail in an open stairwell and let gravity help medescend to the next level, arms and legs extended for perilous balanceas I surf a frozen wave, pants buffng the banister while I glide over the steps my feet don’t have to take to get down …
Men remind her every day to take her pills and how precious that she writesso vicious she considers a bulldozer her body the soft organs of ita stomach and the lining acidic and accepting of what she puts there or notand what about the hands one palmed flattened on a page the other balled fistedaround …