Bent over his lap,he was a samurai. Nothing deferred him from his work.The hot sun layers down red lacquer on his neck.The late spring foxtails scratched the soft skinof his lower back where the shirt rode up.On the other sideRead more…
Lace wing disaster
A thousand lacewings caress the bare black skin of the river. Overhead, the last fat cruisers of spring’s rain steam across the ocean of sky toward a crash in the mountains that will exhaust them deliciously and have no name.Read more…
a Dad coffee story
Dad’s coffee maker at his little corner shack in Redondo used to be white. It was that kind of 80’s-era plastic like old electric plug covers that turns yellow with time.By the time he walked into the spare bedroom inRead more…
She Sat
The soft grey blanket of the pacific lay like kindness over the basin. On the ledge of the shore just before the precipitous flattening of the failing surf she caught me: her straight back, hands together in front of heart,Read more…
Winter 2017
We are getting older. Leaves are still falling. Oaks with their thousand years cut short lie in pieces in the field, replacing gold and green with grey. The roses curl their leaves in on themselves, and their hips are theRead more…
Right Now
Even now the lake is smoothing its face to see the first stars bursting out of the indigo sky The sun’s luxurious red hair trails on the far hills who have already gone black with sleep. Armed with only theirRead more…
the message is
The River of Life is Salt: buoys you up no problem with tears and sweat stings like a fuck when you get hurt. The Salt is singing. Sometimes, you are not listening. Sometimes, the message is silence. Sometimes the messageRead more…
Grinding her teeth
The Goddess of Flowers is grinding her teeth. Softly luminous, tethered to a million fetal pieces of spring She is clenching her fists. Birth pains ~ maybe. And a hatred of the bare, twisted branches she is trying not toRead more…
Rags
The Empress in her rags on the packed-earth path up the snow-covered mountain stops without a plan turns from the gray shale slopes. Below is the green world and cities that are her inheritance. She notices for the first timeRead more…
Horse
Horse and rider jump – into traffic into water in between the lanes disappearing into everything right there in front of all of us who live and doubt God is surging back and forth restive with his magnificence between yourRead more…