Category Archive

I was eating an apple core, he was staring at me intently. A familiar, older guy, nicotine-stained mustache, grease-shined veteran’s hat. He asked if I tried the apples from the Great Tree of Life, pointing his finger, “Up there, in Heaven.” I was new, so was this. I said, “No.” He told me all about it: the tree, its juicy …

in the mess hall at military school back straight like flagpole & chin up the boy on my left his lips from jamaica the boy on my right his teeth from saudi arabia the boy in front his tongue from mexico officer speaks in a southern drawl “y’all may eat” the entire mess hall understands the sentence cornbread, okra, apple …

Re-dream ritual, old man dream she glide by, slow, hot. Undulate side to side pause, steam, sway again. I melt, hiss your name must be Candle or Flame. Her eyes smolder she purse red lips, blow fiery kiss. Still ancient, I wake ashamed, drooled, blissed.

we all do, and will make mistakes- knowingly, and of course unknowingly… often calculated, believing it’s for a greater good. sometimes we make them, hoping they won’t be, or mitigation will be but a simple course correction. or even moral justification why- to ourselves believing no one’ll ever be the wiser, of our slip-fall-slide-crash-boom- we can’t always be the smartest …

He is impatient with poets, in fact he is almost openly contemptuous of them as writers of no consequence, no commitment, no gravitas- mere butterflies or soap bubbles with short lives and even shorter attention-spans- he himself is a novelist, a chronicler, an author of consequence whose stories are made into films in which he himself deigns to act at …

I picked up Billy Collins Nine Horses for $3 at Half-Price Books the 1st poem “A Night Letter to the Reader” had notes written in all the margins sloppy handwriting and underlines squished among the words the book obviously bought for a class –    and that one poem as the rest of the book was clean except one word …

Obsolete items Stored, forgotten, cannibalised Stripped of anything useful To make something new, or fix something else. Like my sewing bag Scraps, waiting for just the right project Waiting for years, sifted through, and discarded Time and time again. Now realising my life’s a boneyard A litany of shipwrecks, pointless pursuits So important at the time. Faded friendships too Oceans …

Still as the paws of the calico who rests her chin on my hands in the midst of a storm A chair flies above an aching head, so close that hairs whoosh along with it But she stays, subtle bobs of the head, with every gentle breath Profanity laced shouts lead to her heavy sighs, exhaling in my language The …

The old newspapers used to care, Or said so: they had superhuman Eyes, and they couldn’t wait to share The news, like Dewey Beats Truman. But that did not pay off somehow So today’s lede, of thousands now Dead, from dark monsoon or earthquake, Is next to Bake A Thai Love Cake. And what few columns they do run Are …

Vicodin and pink wine Don’t mix on divine trips to the Back of the recliner Where I get in The most insane conversations I must have forgotten why I’m here- father-of-the-year? Just grin and bear it. No one ever questions Why you always get Drunk at family gatherings do they? They say that’s just her way. Black sheep But they …