XXIV

cold air
seeps
into your hollow body

your double opens
what should be eyes

XXIII

your body
spewed and reformed

blue wire
skeleton
danging above

XXII

unknown 

anatomy

squirming 

through

pinpricks

XXI

nerves slicing
through your flesh
like the raised hair
of a wolf
smelling death

XX

sinew peels
from the bone

spiraling through
your sweat-soaked skin

to emerge

XIX

and the lick
of blue light
slicing through
your bones

the width of sticks

XVIII

you stumble on a stone

creekwater slick

and pitch 

to the ground

deep blanket of pine fur

XVII

you crash through
the jaws of pines

careening

darkstruck

cold with dread

XVI

your breath shatters
like a dropped glass

the lonely dance
of a heartbeat or two

and you start to run

XV

your eyes
reel and dilate

shadows surge
to fill the void

you are now alone

XIV

starlight breaks
through the trees
and illuminates

snarling crushed-nose faces
and glassy feral eyes

XIII

a low chant roils
ominous whirlwind

crown of ice
laid upon your
shuttering skull

XII

you stand alone
but you are not

a ring of eyes
glint and flicker
from the low boughs

XI

you jerk away,
the grip loosens
and floats upward

nesting like a crow
in a black pine

X

but the
embrace of fingers
around your
cold wrist

is no animal's paw

IX

no, a trick
of the trembling ear
to hear the steps
of a corpse
in an opossum's wander

VIII

...

a thump
some

limb dragged
through wet soil

VII

skin of your cheek
pulling taut

ears hinged
to seize on any
sudden              
           
             twigcrack





                 

VI

your eyes
blackly dilate

watching for the breath
of shadow
on shadow

V

step deeper in,
shake off the fanged cold
coiled in your gut

cloth swish
shroud music

IV

on the other side

of this darkness

someone waits

to taste your breath

between whispers

III

the lights of town

fuzz out behind

the slim wall of fog

your home, vacant.

porch light dying.

II

crow caw twilight:
the woods part
and shadows leak out

the scent of cold sticks,
rain puddling in your steps

I

summer's wing
has folded under the
cold nose of fall -

this story uncurls
a wet limb

9/28/2016

worm or stone

will dig an

eyeless path

to the surface

cell seeking sun

9/24/16

a secret clutched
between teeth,
soured by saliva

the thin spread of gas
in a basement corner

9/23/16

all these night animals
dewy and plump
with young blood

i wield my graying muzzle,
scarred and elegant as a stone

9/22/16

my son's
first green prayer

tiny limbs fording
creekbed and treeroots
thick as dog's neck

9/21/16

hobbling under
the crossed planets
of september

every leaf shadow
a drowned mouse

9/20/16

take away the hearth,

the ax, our two-legged god -

still we sit,
ring of mothers

watching the cubs tussle

9/19/16

you unbrick a grave
the same way
you raise a chimney

each stone held
for a moment alone

9/18/16

deluge, waist-deep
and churning brown
down the hillside

this is how stormwater
steals the unfortunate

9/17/16

we climb the hill
unlit
by human eyes

september casts
small curses

9/16/16

the
brass
band
pleases
itself

9/15/16

i return home,
pulling roped cirrus
tame as a barrow

and hoist you into
the sky's embrace

9/14/16

open mouth howl,

raccoon thrash

at the chain end

and my hands, 

open. gunless.

9/13/16

jackrabbit lean,
dirt-paw scramble
up the hillside

run to the circle of
dried twigs and fur

9/12/16

ear pressed to 

your rabbit-bone sternum

i hear your heart kick

its feet between coughs

good blood strong blood

9/11/16

fall into
the river

that turns people
into ghosts

remember that feeling

9/10/16

air curled with the warmth 

of so much blood

red wish thrashing

in the locked hutch

of rib cage

9/9/16

this is the shout
down the hallway,
eyes blinded by orbit

what can i tell you -
all is milkweed weight

9/6/16

little goddess
sing your crooked teeth
your smirk splitting
the curtains
wide open

9/5/16

sunflower seedwheel
summer mandala

milktooth
corn
left on the plate

9/4/16

air shimmering with
electricity, clapping leaves
and cicada howl

while lovers speak
in pantomime

9/3/16

the sky electric blue,
blue as the water
held captive
beneath
a foaming fountain

9/2/16

raising boys
that wiggle
through our fingers
like the silver spines
of minnows

9/1/16

irritated

tugging unripe

fruit from the vine

germ lost

to sour pique

8/31/16

the garden behind the church

has curled to a burnt husk

we thumb dropped lavender, 

astringent in 

the sunny lull of late morning

8/30/16

we laid this month flat

and wrote our family name

on every page

the old name

the new family

8/29/16

dark night
cut through
with the oil
of musk
and skunk

8/28/16

texan with

a bruisey apple heart

one arm on her man

the other 

not

8/27/16

i slid down the hill
to where the woods
bottomed out, sweet circle
of sunlight and ferns,
water-black shale

8/26/16

tomorrow

a grand heat, some

herculean good

but tonight

the soft snag of wool

8/25/16

our voices

ring

through

the 

empty house

8/24/16

a hand parting shadows

in idle bonelessness;

fingers spiral

backwards to 

kiss wrist

8/23/16

a shut gate

and his silent 

narrative

churn circles

in the katydid heat

8/22/16

dark-bottom
clouds
hung like
the wrong side
of a penny

8/21/16

teach your feet to push

at the cracked back of the earth,

bear your precious weight

rucksack laced  

to taut web of bone

8/20/16

summer will end
when it's ready

boys wrestle in the pool
like puppies, mouths open
as if to swallow the day

8/19/16

You'll know it

when you stop

writing about them,

meet them in dreams

like strangers

8/18/16

silver button moon

illuminates

my messy beasthood

nest of shed hair

and bruise

8/17/16

semi-lucid juxtapositions

the sooty howl
curling down the hallway

threadbare nags twitching
at the kiss of a fly

8/16/16

heat-stroke muscle

seizuring 

                  the long days

of summer

                    stoke fire

stoke rage

           

8/15/16

drinking wine
on the dark porch
i braid their voices
one up
one down

8/14/16

hunkered on

the seam between

sleep and fever,

hallucination

and dream

8/13/16

ten days heat
honing
the skin's burr

your thigh
a thick knife

8/12/16

our skin
glows with blood

our bodies
make
rain

8/11/16

my son,
the size of
the baby finger
on your
heavy paw

8/10/16

a bullet
sinking
in the glass
you press
to your lips

8/9/16

lie in
the coffin
of
another
cicada
night

8/8/16

he wraps an arm,
thin as a rabbit's bone,
over my neck

and snares me
in his sleep

8/3/16

streetlights ghost
the lip
of the bridge

glowing sentry
guide me home

8/2/16

listening to 

unseen cars

slow, 

then push a soft rattle 

around the corner

8/1/16

when the heat hits
i can shake it

and when
the light fails
we can fake it

7/31/16

sometimes you
fall to dust

sometimes you
bloom the small roses
of august

7/30/16

leaves overlap, lightly lick
each other's spine
and rain
                     
                      parts them
                      like an animal
                      slithering into a hole

7/29/16

mousehole altar
plugged mutely into
the hillside

tchotchkes multiply
in the stone grotto

7/28/16

in the shower
he rubs his eyes
with a wet fist

baby hair
black snake tendril

7/27/16

thunderhead sunrise:
fuming orange curled
under the tongue of dawn
and pink streaks westward -
meteors, banners, lofted praise

7/26/16

the light on the porch
melting from blonde
to pink
to blue
to black

7/25/16

a simmering snarl

that gains mass

and grows fangs -

dog day 

crescendo

7/24/16

driving, thighs clenched
around a cup of ice
                         
melting,
that sweet

bite

7/23/16

muggy noon

lugging an armful

of books

i need a beer, and

a few empty hours

7/22/16

slogging through
the soaking rain

your mouth pressed
to my wet shoulder

half-sleep half-love

7/21/16

when obligation lifts
and it feels
like a hole


in a
fire-gutted roof

7/20/16

summer tableau:
       beer        strawberries
 
   and colored glass
             

                    an evening hung
                       like the moon

7/19/16

tilt your
maelstrom mouth
to the wind
howl
nonononono

7/18/16

after a dim day

in the sickroom

the sky explodes, mammoth,

dogging my steps

with dazzling vibration

7/17/16

laughing, he pops
champagne
in the dark yard

so the baby
won't wake

7/16/16

unkept mandala
of weeds and wildflowers
cartwheeling behind the church:

buttonheaded chamomile,
great shaggy heaps of lavender

7/15/14

you set to sea

in your little boat

left ashore, I cradle

stray screws

in my warm palm

7/14/16

he steadies his weight

on my flexed foot -

I am elephantine, hoisting

a sweet-faced starlet

with my wrinkled nose

7/13/16

we count down another

heat-glazed afternoon

our hair curled 

with sweat

and dozy naps

7/12/16

a poem doesn't
need much

the baby splashes
in three inches of
lukewarm tub water

7/11/16

bees hum
figure 8s over
the gravel pit

digging holes
mouth-first

7/10/16

feeling my age

in a basement café,

walls hemmed with 

vocal fry and 

coconut milk

7/9/16

pull the bowstring tight,
sinew thick with suspension
suddenly sprung -
thrum and blood
thrum and blood

7/8/16

he looks just like you
she says, but we all carry
our mother's germ

sometimes it emerges years later,
like a dormant snail suddenly wet

7/7/16

swollen clouds
pass overhead,
refuse us rain
like a gravid pet cat
squeezing under the fence

7/6/16

we kneel on the rug
and count the words
he knows by heart: hi bye
yellow blue green no
yes mama home

7/5/16

kitchen clouded with
steam and your hands
worn to runged bone

break bread and eat crumbs
sow corn and reap crows

7/4/16

drink swiftly;
rain-soaked backyards
don't last, firecrackers
don't last, we
boom gone

7/3/16

diner lit golden 

syrup, amber glass

dust-slung wall

above the percolator

thick with deer heads

7/1/16

sunlit swath of color
buzzing, neon electric
atop those steely clouds;
Iris laughs, leaping over
the grey roof of the city

6/30/16

the cottontail

perceives 

my toothlessness;

he unhurries his

forked gait

6/29/16

my hands
kissing
in dishwater

blued by
unsipped milk

6/28/16

our tired bodies

pass the warm afternoon

sunk in slumber,

glowing like

embers

6/27/16

shrieking with the happiness 

of summer hose water,

his mouth open so wide -

as if running

to take a bite of the day

6/26/16

summer snapshot,
the alley behind you
exploding with flowers -
shaggy thistle, chicory blue &
jumping like a sailor's whistle

6/25/16

The sting of
The scorpion bowl.
We are loud
And
Negligent.

6/24/16

lying down
in the empty corridor
of cloudy afternoon

gray narrow built
for thumbing poems

6/23/16

storm-awoken by
the clattering flash

my mouth dry and open,
still dreaming of the wide
river of death

6/22/16

the falling sun
ushers robins,
rabbits treeward

unspools the great strand
of rising fireflies

6/21/16

the old dog of ire
snoozing soft-jawed
by your feet

teeth fond and full
of your sweetness

6/20/16

our house is on fire
and you and i
shed water between
burning bricks
and the sky

6/19/16

sweat-on-sweat skin
gleaming through the
rebar constellations

i damply adorn
this sunbaked city

6/18/16

sweat-damp curls
crown this proud fever,
the body's fine work -

cornsilk circling
the swelling june ear

6/17/16

a finger of cigarette smoke
smoothing the tablecloth
dreamlike -

                    his brass impala
kneels in a thicket
of knick knacks

6/16/16

thunder simmers
a black bruise

the house is darkly still;
old pewter glassed behind
the high wall of rain

6/15/16

all this wine
these women
seated at one another's
right hand
like knives

6/14/16

morning tears open
the sky like a hangnail

coral pink shock
sky swollen
with grey boulders

6/13/16

under the droop of
flowerheads,
air ferries
solemn-faced
little flies

6/12/16

when we sang

your name

you stretched a smile

as wide as the hilltops,

high as the strawberry moon

6/11/16

i wrap
toy cars and blocks
no gift
the match
for his trusting kiss

6/10/16

i watch a street corner kiss

from a borrowed car -

the whole drive home

my jaw works a pinch

of stolen thyme, bitter bloom

6/9/16

i follow you

up and down

the mountain

shoulders brushing 

the overgrowth

6/8/16

the teeth
you sharpened
can break skin

tender finger
held out for a kiss

6/7/16

drinking

tuesday's
bourbon

with

houseplants

6/6/16

the rain
drew
a curtain

the valley
gray silk

6/5/16

her soul spilling
a trail of honey
through a room
rubbed dry
with cardamom

6/3/16

i let him push his cars
over the humped backs
of gravestones,
hope the tolerant ghosts
of mothers are smiling

6/2/16

lightning glints in dark
like a church-hung lantern

arriving storms shoot their
black cannons and gallop
down the mountain

6/1/16

in the pink tub

i pour water through 

his babyfine hair

he closes his eyes and smiles,

birthday in three days

5/31/16

streetlight burning
in a shard of mirror
like a candle smoking
low
on the sidewalk

5/30/16

grandpapa pillbug

rises from a turned dirt,

slateblue back atremble

with the huff and bluster 

of an old man's wag

5/29/16

the city unfolds
in the rain, breathing
great gasps of grey sky

i am wet footed in all this
rippling, rushing water

5/28/16

when sweat
gloves
your naked back

lay against the cool rock
find where the trees meet

5/27/16

groggy with rowhouse heat

we watch the yellow afternoon 

sink and melt like butter

in the corners of the room,

cast-iron walls sizzle nightfall 

5/26/16

tonight Mars

looks pale -

a feral rabbit

catching moon

in her ashy pelt

5/25/16

praying

the new plant
takes root

the car makes it
up the hill home

5/24/16

the body as a
whetstone, eschewing
the dingy rungs of bone:

hone the mind
to a shimmering edge

5/23/16

thud boom music
from one street over
and the last robin
staking his claim
at eight pm

5/22/16

little family
limply curled under
blankets, heads in laps

illness ties our thread tight -
such comfort in the web of kindness

5/21/16

umbrellaless,
we walk furred
with rain - weary beers
are worth the wet,
our soppy flirt

5/20/16

curdled milk -
the low spread of clouds
covering your lap
i pick you up, sweet-heart
& carry you into the house

5/19/16

the sparrows are fledging
but I'm tired of old tropes -

so here is the doe, cornered
between jersey barriers,
her casual walk
                           her last seconds

5/18/16

my legs move
tireless, dog-team
sharp with the memory
of childbirth and
moonlessness

5/17/16

let the morning 

kettle boil over -

split slices of

still-warm bread

and find the sun

5/16/16

family stones
wide as headboards
part the cemetery grass

here sleeps he, she
here grows a quiet seed

5/15/16

the baby turns
in his cot, dream-wise

downstairs we pour
liquor over ice,
toast the quiet end of sunday

5/14/16

pale pelted
suckling ghost
slips under the fence

vanishes like
a mote
             eyeblink

5/13/16

i saw bones

in the house 

seize, stutter

   \/\/\/

i saw you

drip like rain

5/12/16

don't cry;

i know how to carry

your big cracked jar

it weeps water

but holds light

5/11/16

i drink my cup dry

then squat, stranded

in the wet glass 

like a froglet

forgotten in a child's pail

5/10/16

paste-moth women
stain the wallpaper
with spit and scale

moonblind low orbit
panic of starvation

5/9/16

they pulled the willows
from the river
                       quivering
rods snapping underfoot
like reeds     like wooden bones

5/8/16

larva wisdom:

       life is
       blind anticipation

       the earth is
       coarse and full of tunnels

5/7/16

it hit the window screen

with a bang

and plummeted into the

gray matrix of dusk -

a moment erased

5/6/16

the earlybird crowd
buzzes sepia

brushfire wheezes
by the highway
far from this cold beer

5/5/16

in rain-slashed 

violet dusk

thunderheads float

down the rivers

like barges, heaped with coal

5/4/16

crawl through the wet dark

feeling newly blind 

or newly born, unfolding-

down the street her hips 

sing sweetly to themselves

5/3/16

after every rain
the glass mountain
pours down blessings -
silt-swollen palmfuls,
broken saucers & bones

5/2/16

our room cowers, rotten stray

caught in the pour of black water

and sky-flung stones

lightning - swift parasite - seeps in,

multiplies and eats the walls alive

5/1/16

he wakes up in the parking lot
sweat-marked and lowly afraid
moaning no no no no

I open the door & show him
wide fields thick with violets

4/30/16

this morning, reeling from

the scattershot sleep

of mothers, I let 

my feet guide, eat gravel

for lean miles like hungry dogs

4/29/16

the bald cut
through the mountain
has laced its fingers -

a mossy silk ceiling
to catch our prayers

4/28/16

my years crumpled

patchwork, mouse teeth

in the next room

the cat cracks

her greymoth bones

4/27/16

it had been a rabbit -

i saw its tail 

on the asphalt 

severed but complete 

as a little coin

4/26/16

my limbs
stripped
down to wire

copper sinew
tungsten halo

4/25/16

lay down your
teary hiccup
in the curve of my neck

this room is yours
as long as i live

4/24/16

I wrap
you in a blanket
        laughing


a cocoon
a shroud

4/23/16

spring comes
pulling open
the lofty afternoon;
houseplants tremble
blissful in an open window

4/22/16

he laughs 

and his little sharps

sew the room

tight

with his delight

4/21/16

i wipe his tears in 

the car, new routine;

all day the sky

wanted to rain

        but kept forgetting

4/20/16

little boy hanging
heavy in my arm's cradle

sleepy bones
ballast
my soaring love

4/19/16

the black face of
the orchard bee
blank
but somehow sweet

tending her well-loved children

4/18/6

pulling weeds,

the fat taproot 

snaps -

fingers scrape dirt for 

the unseen 

                   touch nothing

4/17/16

sunshine sifts through
a hillside of bald trees

above hawks talk about
circles
the only human word they know

4/16/16

the coal barge 

difts downsteam

motionless

as a butter dish

on tomorrow's table

4/15/16

let your star-wild spirit
cascade, burn spirals -

but learn too
the patience of seeds
the diligence of ants

4/14/16

hang dandelion roots, our
pantry bright with dirt-smell
and fat white carrots

oh welcome weeks of weeds,
spring tonics and birdsong

4/13/16

even in exhaustion

he sprawls with the grace

of a skin diver -

back flung in a nimble J,

jaw clasping an unseen knife

4/12/16

scrub the crystal
thrifted, dust-hungry
in a bowl of vinegar

the hands itch pink
the sun shines through

4/11/16

monday's wound -
this old
gray vacancy,
the seam in a mirror
that obscures

4/10/16

crouched on cement

agog, feet lost to fractured

fault line stop-clock 

                machines rend the sky

                with booming violence

4/9/16

nestled in the crags

             of sleep 

the baby shakes 

             his blind

             fists

4/8/16

we are grown women
wifed, arms round from
cradling children
but tonight we are lean-legged boys,
our hot hearts, our beery oaths

4/7/16

in an unlit room

surrounded by rain

i disassemble

                         my spread body,

                         stillness in silence

4/6/16

beyond my
nightdark yard
i hear two cats
fighting

or lovesick

4/5/16

from down the deeply

shadowed hall,

a small, lonely cough

like a drip of water

lost far within a cave

4/4/16

tiny socks. damply spread 

on the bureau to dry

cry mama, mama - 

like gnaw marks in the plaster, 

we can never fully forget

4/3/16

a cold snap
felled the river weeds -

wilted bodies
pierced
by the blades of tulips

4/2/16

it's night
and our bared
teeth
scissor tight
play nice

4/1/16

red-capped, my son
hops through
the church garden,

glad cardinal
amid his flowers

3/31/16

through his small body,
my milk-stained robe -

our ribs meet and
I feel the gurgle
of his lungs like my own

3/30/16

magnolia petals

done hoisting our
winter-sick hearts

now rot to rust:
blessings spent

3/29/16

running past a dozen happy hours

my feet hit each cellar door 

square: 

                 

                      bang bang 

the give of steel, the expected 

jolt and clatter an act of joy

3/28/16

he stops mid-chew

and starts to laugh -

at what, I can only guess

his mind, a new expanse

large enough to stand inside

3/27/16

arrived early to brunch,
we make small talk
like strangers

coffee pools in our saucers
no matter how careful

3/26/16

freeze the cobra
midstrike,
trace its undulation -

the spines of bare trees
rise from the hillside

3/25/16

the barberry bush 

spits thorns and sulks.

I prune her too roughly -

unwanted old aunt

that came with the house

3/24/16

where the houses
slid down the hill,
forsythia blooms wild -

sprays in the rubble,
yellow as poison

3/23/16

the city gardens sing yellow
with acres of tiny daffodils;
on the elevator a pack
of knee-high boys tussle -
towheaded, spring fevered

3/22/16

digging up the weeds 

of early spring,

my hands sieve the old neighborhood -

bent nails and 

wedges of iridescent pink glass

3/21/16

inevitable betrayal -
when the slim
branch
of girlhood
finally snaps

3/20/16

in the linoleum basement
we eat crockpot-warm pierogi
sunk in butter, neon yellow -
upstairs saints sit in their
cerulean thrones, unseen

3/19/16

on the grey river trail
joggers hang found gloves
from low branches
like the rain-soaked kills
of a cat, laid out with love

3/18/16

alone in the crook

of a used bookshop,

stripped down to brain 

and eyeballs -

the vigilance of ghosts

3/17/16

knees dark
with cold mud,
I tear at the lily roots -

tangled bolus
of white snakes

3/16/16

motherhood taught me
to savor a good crossword:
smooth mirror symmetry
made complete
in a life ever unfinished

3/15/16

the ides of march
and street trees
hide their daggers
in clouds of
pink blossoms

3/14/16

my pale bride bones

melt into sinew - 

some old witch,

sleeping in your sunlit bedroom,

tongue furred with black spells

3/13/16

nightfall and the robin

on the roof is chiding the world;

he scolds the pebbles and flies,

spring winds, mud,

the lip of sky that dares to steep black-blue

3/12/16

sunglasses and the thump
of bass in the parking lot;
too sunny for March,
too hungover
to act my age

3/11/16

dig your nails
into the softening dirt
glove your hands
in warm silt
silk

3/10/16

holding tight my son's tiny hand
I elucidate on the noises of trucks,
the danger of nudging a toy through
the sewer grate, things in the world that
are circles - like my fingers around his wrist

3/9/16

step into my home, dim

in the sunken afternoon light

but suddenly buoyant,

rife with the violet-blue scent 

of rooms swept with spring air

3/8/16

The romance of the lunch plate:

filigree of sliced tomatoes,

grilled cheese lacy with burned fat,

buttersoft beets cubed and piled

like a trove of rough garnets.

3/7/16

awake two hours before sunrise,
I sit on the moth-chewed couch
to watch him at the hard work of play;
his eager gait, like a dog straining
towards that green moment of leashlessness

3/6/16

air torn by the 

thick-tongued chord

of passing trains,

their centipede sulk

into soot-inked holes

3/5/16

I gave birth squatting
in the ochre, staring at the
sun, pebbles, crystal grit
now I hide my son in blue dusk
behind a fence of bared teeth

3/4/16

a room awash in spirits, warm hands
refolding stringy thrift-store sweaters,
the lines forming along our eyes but
oh the stories we slipped into our wine
oh we flat-footed hilltop women

3/3/16

carry buckets of stone-smelling water

fetch the horses from their wooded wander
and brush their legs clean of ticks

mend the fence where it cracked in the night
and lay shattered two half-frozen weeks

3/2/16

the unvoiced morning 

between coffee and skyspit snow;

later on the baby cried so loud

the iron radiator resonated,

startled him with its ringing

3/1/16

for a month I've rode 

this bed like a boxcar

flat back hobo healing

ready to jump ship

purple scars flying

2/29/16

a springwarm leap day
pulling dusty strings of morning glories
from where, in death, they hug the chain-link

now piled on the softening dirt
still kinked, knot of decay

2/28/16

sprawling like an open hand,
the spider plant
cast down a feeler
sewn with pearls -
five white flowers

2/27/16

reemerging into the sight
of a thousand sidewalk eyes
my skin feels soft
and penetrable
like a freshly molted cicada

2/26/16

the stones, in daylight
nosed by grazing oxen,
grow weird in darkness -
vestibule to the wicked wild,
a place to sharpen teeth and run

2/25/16

she comes to the door
with snow-wet hair
and a gleaming white light
like Clara Barton pulling
a lantern from her cape

2/24/16

in the unlit kitchen
i brew coffee and stand
barefoot, watching
stone-black clouds
cascade down the mountain

2/23/16

the hour spent
eating bread and butter
with my small son,
sitting at his toy table
in the dusty morning light

2/22/16

snap awake from a
gut-clench nap, gasping
in a roil of sweat -

outside the grey world
is barely humming

2/21/16

keep the window cracked open,
let oceandark night seep
through the screen -
octopus ink billowing
through a sailor's trawl

2/20/16

late winter riot of spring -

wind licking bare skin

held out in the sunshine,

skulls filled and overflowing

with phlox and poppy

2/19/16

when the wet night pulls close

with a braided melange:

spilled beer, old sweat and

the sweet tang of underarms, 

like it was summer

2/18/16

after the men left, we flew 

to the corners of the winter hut

(where sealmeat hung from sinew)

screamed and shook, scrape-jawed until

our teeth clattered in airless, sunless still

2/17/16

His hands,
small as dormice,
pull through his hair;
thin reeds of harvest -
bird fluff, milkweed.

2/16/16

daddy, bus-tired with a
backpocket necktie dangling
like a tiger tail,
fetches our lost crayon
from under the fridge

2/15/16

the obstinate little donkey
who once snapped her rein
to ransack sunwarm muscats
now wearily circles the bottom of the canyon -
swirl of blood in the cold creek

2/14/16

valentine's drive by:
florescent muzak nausea
in the hothouse,
icicle exitwounds in the
salt-rimmed parking lot

2/13/16

the baby naps
face pushed into the sheet like
he's wriggling down an anthill,
butt up, knees tucked,
caught in a beautiful dive

2/12/16

mom
i fell out of a tree
crashed my bike
gave birth, suffered, split and
i think i need a band-aid

2/11/16

i peeked
into the soft cleft
and a red eye
peeked
back

2/10/16

soft waking skin pillowing
a furrow of bruise and blood
in a painstaking reveal:
slice the hide from a stonefruit
and trace its yawing veins

2/9/16

my son, you are silent

as a river seen from a high hill;

but when I traverse your shore

collecting pebbles, I swear

I hear my name 

2/8/16

when he collapses, howls
digs his face into the floorboards
i am blind to everything beside
his meager ribcage, his neck
slender and strong as a sapling

2/6/16

the block-long scab of dog turds 

and cellophane may well have been

forty arid years; broken moses, I

said a prayer for snackcakes unbought

and perished in the glow of the far unimart

2/5/16

i was nearly swooning

when the call came:

swan-necked, dizzy from

cut skin, gleeful with

good news

2/4/16

his arched heel
held high as a pup's hock
traces a phantom pain;
his hobbled steps,
this unnameable wound

2/3/16

those strange-god surgeons stole 

my rough pearl and threw me back:

a halved clam,

loose rake of gills wet

with my sandy blood 

1/31/16

my advice:
brew tea, crush herbs,
circulate your bloodlike water,
unclench, unsew, allow
to breathe your tender organs

1/30/16

I turn to the throaty tongue
of the deaf woman
and see her husband
mouth his reply
unvoiced, secret

1/29/16

nightshirt, pills, notepads.
four cans of cucumber seltzer.
a fat book of crossword puzzles.
if you can buy good juju
stuff my bag with gleaming amulets.

1/28/16

the unknown is a broken 

tooth and fear the magnet 

that keeps your dumb 

tongue sweeping

over the empty socket

1/27/16

I run in the blue-black night
because I am scared, because my fears
are scrawny winter rabbits; I run,
a good dog, until I can no longer,
then sleep dreamless by the fire.

1/26/16

every time I wash his hands
he points out three peas
wheeling in the sink strainer;
during nap I fish them out
like wrinkled pearls

1/25/16

cabbage-headed peonies
clench teeth in the rain
but unfold their arms
under the tender feet
of soft-hearted ants

1/24/16

this dim weight
lead-bellied, herbicidal
lockjawed with rust:
the wash of my blood
unchained panacea

1/23/16

my body hums
with dysfunction
streetcar ligaments
buzzing with pain
ne pas toucher le third rail

1/22/16

ice floes course
the night river;
drops of milk
mushrooming
on a plate of ink

1/21/16

he speaks like it's mundane
to misremember the color
your childhood home,
to forget which forked road
took you there

1/20/16

first the tremendous 

dreadful humming of bees -

then an odd rattle 

like a fist 

pounding on a space capsule

1/19/16

this ice cell morning,
a whistle from the east -
this oil spill nightfall,
my thoughts emerge in puffs
of steam, my teeth shake

1/18/16

she is not death, but knows death:

one hand reaching through your pit of fire,

the other fanned backward like a palm leaf,

green snakes ribboned

through her swamp forest hair

1/17/16

the grey pane of water
under the overcast expanse
and between
the city like a glass transom
cranked open, dripping with steam

1/16/16

fingertip of snow
pressed against the fence,
cement glinting with salt,
and the wet black seam
where they are sewn together

1/15/16

ring of fecund women
pouring their warm, thick love -
under my coat
my hollow body clangs
like the tongue of a bell

1/14/16

wet wool smell of thawed dirt
and warming breezes-
my childish heart spelunks
into every ice pool,
slush-ringed, quartz-clear

1/13/16

no longer a baby, he fits a chair
brow studious over blocks; below
his feet dangle
like two small sparrows
frozen mid-plummet

1/12/16

we ran a merry dotted line
of footprints from fence to fence;
while he sleeps
the air goes opaque,
erases the morning's swift course

1/11/16

the day bowie died
we talked about the pretenders,
how to sneer
and yelp
with a baby on your hip

1/10/16

my oyster child
paint over this vexing grit
with salt water wash,
smooth it with the nacre
borne of my love

1/9/16

coffee-soaked morning
happy houseplants and me
humming dire straits in a pile
of sweaters, thrift store sweet
with patchouli and sunshine

1/8/16

children plop like mushrooms

in motherly laps, soft and milky;

my son arcs through the room

like a silver wire -

stray voltage, strange orbit

1/7/16

seven brick sisters
hug the hillside
black lacquer porches
entwined like
ringless fingers

1/6/16

i have always known
these sugartooth houses

the scent of skin that
lingers
around the front door

1/5/16

vein of silt, obscene

washed from the white stalk;

pale moons of celery 

to pile on your plate, pound

to threads between your tiny teeth

1/4/16

maman is out, so stay mon cher
drink rum under cock feather crown
and laugh, cigars and bay leaves
I dug your grave so forgive my touch;
poor mouth packed tight with cemetery mud

1/3/16

gray of slate, tongue of silver
a pile of grey sticks in morning fog
crust of rime, sheet-metal morning
and the momentary shock:
blue sliver of eggshell in dead grass clasp

1/2/16

matchsticks and thread
beget bone-marrow miracles
in a mile of gold foil,
the shaky latin of nuns
gone brown with age

1/1/16

scrape the pot clean,

fill your mouth with coins

and weedy greens -

bitter alchemy of

survivorship