I don’t want to know you anymore
I told you I wasn’t a poet anymore
stop texting me prompts and images of the sunset or twilight or stars
…
Ode to a Perfect Stranger
… Rain turned to sleet, then hail,
during my hour of errands,
leaving a macadamed parking
lot of black icy terror
…
About the Birds and the Bees
In Kauai sex is everywhere
In gardens and along roadsides
Stamens in their sheaths springing out
in orange and yellow hibiscus flames
Like young stallions in the first throes of…
Farewell to Summer
[…]
No more will our young lab Pepper nuzzle your ears,
lick salt from your eyes, and jump over you in joy.
No more marveling at the heap of two black labs on one bed…
[…]
Leaving Paris
Our last night on the Boulevard Montmartre, you discovered,
among dusty rows of cracked pitchers and wrinkled antique
lace, the perfect sapphire ring, insisting that I have it as a reminder
of the way you thought of me. Exhausted from our walking…
A Good Host
When the winds of change come knocking on your door (as they do to every door, sooner or later), don’t turn off the lights or hide behind the curtains. Try to be a good host…
The Cripple Makes a Wish
It didn’t happen in the way that other folks will have you think: a flash of light, a giant earthquake rumbling through your bones.
I simply did what I was told…
40
The day after I visit my daughter in prison I think of how she is not allowed to handle money not even go near the vending machines…