I waited for the first signs

poetry
  I waited for the first signs of menopause to announce themselves, and as the days passed, I felt no different except in my mind, which is where all maturation…

Birthday

poetry
  I won’t wish you happy an inch past New Year’s with neither of us sure how much death we’ll shovel off the sidewalk ahead. Instead, I’ll wish surprise—a cartwheel…

What I Want to Understand

poetry
  why I can’t touch the blue of the sky even as it touches me, even as the trees sing: the hemlocks beat-boxing; the pines raising their resinous voices, trickling…

Understanding

poetry
  in winter’s throat stuck. I am stuck in winter’s throat, the throat winter stuck me in. I am winter in winter’s throat stuck and my mother is here. winter…

October

poetry
  On my worst days, poetry is proof I can make everything about me: milkweed evaporating from the breast of autumn earth; the corridor of light that bursts as I…

Asking Questions on Yom Kippur

poetry
  Is this a prayer or a small ship on the horizon? Is the water in the distance you or the ocean? (I saw your picture and it left me…

Twelve-Foot Skeletons

poetry
  Change my life into what exactly? There’s a yellow tree in my neighbor’s yard that split down the middle last spring from the weight of late snow. Still went…

What Kind of Bird Changes Its Name

poetry
  was what the search engine recommended before I could finish my intended question—what kind of bird changes its song? The bird in the old oak over my parents' pool…

Tanyard Creek

poetry
  Bella Vista, Arkansas The roll of the waterfall calls to me. Dirt clings to my shoes stepping past rocks on the path, trying not to scare herons feasting nearby.…

Driving in 2016

poetry
  It was fall when I showed you the desert. The imported +maples on campus beginning to turn while unseen coyotes sang in mourning. The San Gabriels ran to our…

When I am drunk enough…

poetry
  When I am drunk enough, I am reminded I can frame whatever I want. Between you & me, home. Between you & me, the eyes of your binoculars. Between…