An MFA Student from China

poetry
  1 So, you’re from China, and write poetry, in English? Often, people who don’t know me ask. Yes, I say, I make them short, so fewer mistakes. Sometimes I…

Presentiment

poetry
  cento* I live, as the river does, in a mystery— wedged in the middle of stars, roses in bloom, penstemon, the wet branches of an oak in winter— where…

Neurodivergent

poetry
+++ (An In-titled Poem)* +++ no nerve-ending ever not riven, +++ i revert to over-genuine, eerie-tongued venting… +++ i regret needing order— +++ never intend to get urgent, indigent: +++…

Another Family Zoom Meeting

poetry
  There’s a firefly in the house. I tried to catch him and return him to the long grass of the unmown lawn, but he slipped through my fingers and…

Modern Day Sin-Eater in the Gig Economy

poetry
  This is the side hustle: +++++++++I eat their dead’s past indiscretions, maybe ++++++++++++++choke a little on the crumbs. +++++Then I go home, +++++++++make mac & cheese for my kid,…

Golden Hour

poetry
  In the field near my house, a horse grazes in his own shadow. All week I thought again of wanting to die. I watch the sun hit the fence…

Tempo

poetry
  What I didn’t suspect about war is that there’d be music Not the kind that compels you to move in harmonious discord with the others Nor the kind that…

I put on Julius Eastman

poetry
  “I always thought I was great but why does making it big take so long?” — Julius Eastman; with Arthur Russell, Gerry Eastman, Pauline Oliveros et al et al…

eep

poetry
  there are too many creatures in the world find the monk seal or water bear purple frog whiling away hundreds of years hidden deep there are too many strange…

Thaw

poetry
  In the dawn breaking over the trees, the wisp of sweet air. A ribbon of water seeps through ice rimes along the brook’s edge. The forest contracts and expands.…