Painting the Eliot Church
South Natick, Massachusetts Before they could scrape, prime, caulk, patch the divots and deep cracks and repair the ubiquitous rot, three men in t-shirts and torn jeans covered…
from The Way to Jade Mountain
After Li Bai, For Shujen Wang 5. A Song When she glides around the garden her light dress lifts like a cloud and her face, because the…
A Hunting Trip
JP is dreaming and Carlos is in the dream. They’re back in the desert, walking toward a road. In the last two weeks, three Humvees have been blown up…
Navigating the Afterlife (Burial Goods)
You find yourself making a list of goods late at night, when the kids have fallen asleep and your wife is making tomorrow’s lunches. When no one is home,…
A Cardinal, Hurling Himself at My Window
I’m told he sees his own reflection in the glass as a competitor, a bird he must face down— I’m not so sure. This morning, there’s the sound again—despite…
when as a grown up, instead of
let’s go to my house you say, let’s go to Mom’s house, the floorboards will creak in places you don’t remember—guaranteed. And you will smell fruit where there was…
“Heavier than age”
Heavier than age Morning has us By the throat. Why do you birds rise so early? Birds have tiny tongues A bird is a bell. Dark people in white…
A Little Picture
Fishermen went out to sea Fisherwomen ran after them A boy is standing in the doorway With a toy ship His eyes have dried up Deep inside them The…
Williamsport
Men with beards of dirt and fire went around the woods, swinging hammers to symbolize dominion. The marks by which they made themselves known upon the trees were all…