The lesson is as simple as this: the carving knife needs to dull itself on the flashing armor of the fish belly. If the garden were its own order, if the weedy fields were what was wanted, we would stillRead more…
The sun rose this morning
The sun rose this morning at 3:14 Everyone was quite surprised. The lavender was caught near the wisteria with its pants down. The lemon was so astonished, given how slavish he is to schedules, that he burst immediately and allRead more…
On Fire
I wonder if they pack the wicker ribs of the burning man with Persephone’s gems, sweet, sweating, burning, bursting as the fire comes. Like even the black tarmack does when Pele’s blood creeps, unstoppable intensity, to the sea. Everything isRead more…
My heart is a bookstore
My heart is a bookstore. Full of stories, and the promises of the wide world. But less and less visited. Something has moved on. My mind has a digital heart that is easily accessible, but that cannot be touched. WillRead more…
June itself announcing
What do you want to be when you grow up? And the answers for a large pink boy were: fireman, policeman, truck driver. I wanted to be the papier-mâché bank I could never quite finish, to hold the vanishing treasureRead more…
When I was 20, I read a book
When I was 20, I read a book about chakras and imagined them as different car headlights hung inside my body their electrical connections dangling, like jellyfish, out my back, where no one could see. I had my arms aroundRead more…
up from the cracks
Life comes up from the cracks out of the asses of birds from flood and fire oaks soaked and blackened before they open one soft green finger to taste the world. Mustard bursts out of the bleak earth. If theRead more…
For the first time
for the first time with night falling with a dead thank-you on the ground, its feet still kicking my lips, it hits me like hot wind from the late train. I do have faith. Long-abandoned under hot classroom lights, pinnedRead more…
The Chef
Cooking for many years but never achieving the notoriety he deserved, the chef branched out with difficult, exotic, foreign delicacies. This brought some small fame, and a flock of culinary thrill-seekers, who are always leaving. On his one day ofRead more…
What were you going to ask?
What were you going to ask me moments ago when I went to tell you that the tea was ready and I blurted into the suddenly-still room where your mother’s doilies have taken station and your roommate’s dusty floor projectRead more…