The Poetry of Emotion
I let go of the longing When I was a boy, When I was a girl. I let go of the longing When I turned twelve, When my father shook the two-spirit From me, tearing off me my dress-up clothes Into tatters, demanding that I tell him What it was I had between my... Continue Reading →
"you know i still love him." as if your slurred speech and the sparkling ring on your left hand hadn't spoken for itself. you took a sip of your drink to hide the well of tears in your eyes, but i saw them. i saw them the same way that i keep seeing that cold... Continue Reading →
Tonight the moon is new; only a few dim stars trapped in onyx, granite-cold wind near midnight; sound of the river, distant, empty, washes across the frosted space where new snow fell this morning. When I saw you last, your image receding in the window at dawn, a faint sail on a far horizon, the... Continue Reading →
The sign said, Renaissance warship. I read Renaissance worship. My mistake I suppose except I’ve seen a caravel – its white sails riding high and white, filled by a sky blue as forgiveness. Lanterns lit below deck, each one a prayer candle against the dark, insistent waves. Wooden hull sweet and round as confession. Even the cannon’s... Continue Reading →
If by fortune We’ve traveled down that long road With those whom we’ve dearly loved, Old friends that were always there Only to precede us slowly one by one Into that eternal starless night, We mourn in silence the loss. But when a soul-mate passes on, We feel as if falling into a black hole... Continue Reading →
Dear dusk, why are you so fleeting? lady lavender pink swirls across consciousness and I try to hold on hold onto the image, the vastness of shadows across the roads, deep and darting, like youthful dancers but you disappear too soon, like so many loved visions, replaced by cold star stabs. why must you fade?... Continue Reading →
i did the laundry silencing the buzzer to keep the babies sleeping i made dinners mopped the floor so little hands and feet could crawl the linoleum floor i guess i dressed you like orphans with hand me downs from Aunt Susan i wore hand-me-downs from cousins it didn’t bother me life in hand me... Continue Reading →
With a storm With a gull With your breath Goes the thought With a vague vision Beyond the bogland With your heart Hawking aloud in the wild With dripping blood An unformed concept A shoal of consciousness Bubbling with feeling With a photon With a quantum With your mind concentrated On a twisted other Photo... Continue Reading →
As I lie in bed the wind warps a hole through me large enough to admit a scorch of moonlight. You’re so restless you roll over and over, flattening landscapes already discolored by memory. Pumps rasp in the basement where ground water plots to reclaim us. The year is ending as usual. ... Continue Reading →
At the corner like bolt of fate, you take a left turn to walk out of my life forever. In order to seal the coffin, within a week, you send a text marked, “never again.” The email - your attempt at an obituary - arrives shortly afterward. I read all eleven pages. ... Continue Reading →
Ephemeral Elegies 