My fiery reputation precludes me. I walk by a bookstore clerk and he frowns. I clerked in a bookstore and frowned all the time. My compulsive hobby was burning bridges. I outgrew the hobby of burning bridges. Now, I’m trying to rebuild those burned bridges. Burned bridges are impossible to rebuild. I thought of a... Continue Reading →

This rain this awful rain refuses to take you away. If the paroxysm of my burns doesn't pain: what else will? Sediment of soil is vitiated with the rubble of washed-up years. On and off it leaks from the scourings. It’s inconceivable for those not tied to ribbon of reciprocalities to jerk to the same twist all... Continue Reading →

My wife said she would make the call if I took the dog in. My wife had to leave the room to make the call. She came back: Go now. They’re waiting for you.   I drove with the dog in my lap. I paid. I waited. There was an adjustable metal table in the room.... Continue Reading →

Without your presence I made it out of this darkness and I walked toward the sun.   I thought of going blind. Truthfully, I thought I could die. Hardly a day went by where I would not plan to do malice to myself.   My thoughts wavered at times. Perhaps I was not as serious... Continue Reading →

I remember the look on the old man’s face when he went into a tirade about something that bruised his pride…An issue about my sister’s boyfriend. He slammed her down on the floor and ranted around the house--saying that he was going to hurt everybody. I stood up to him with a chair, screaming the... Continue Reading →

The TVs bolted to the low ceiling are muted.               Closed captioning appears on the screens                          hanging over humming treadmills and    smashing weights. I’m desperate to run from my             kids’ sadness. I am rearing them alone while                           husband’s at war. I will only run in place,    though, as evening sunlight angles through the YMCA ... Continue Reading →

Life doesn't always float on clouds sometimes, it wakes you up       two hours late       or it       leaves you by the side of the road       in a thunderstorm.       It can be more of a cold shower       or      an empty roll of toilet... Continue Reading →

You’re using “you” in poems these days, the dreaded second person. So, you’ve found no way inside yourself—it’s just like staring at a mirror’s back—and “you” might blast a path? Each new day, you re-enact a dimly lit creation myth. Ten thousand iterations ought to do the trick: from chaos, to an ever-morphing set of... Continue Reading →

My heart may be as common as paper but it is filled to the margins with love. My love was not yours to take. It is mine to share however I choose. I have scars that spill when torn. I have masks fused and worn to bits. I have skin as thin as air. Every... Continue Reading →

The sideboard was full of magazines. Not whole magazines but pages torn from them. Pages of recipes. Meals never eaten. Exotic desserts never attempted. Guests never invited or entertained. At least the furniture had been used, had had many years of use. The clothes had been worn, the pictures admired and enjoyed. But the recipes... Continue Reading →