If Men Had Wings
If men had wings, we would hear nothing but their beating. Some would learn how to tune out the takeoffs, while others would start their day by donning a…
Velvet Knob
The hog farmer is grindstone apples, seek-no-furthers, he is primrose balm, mayhaw and sorrel and scuppernong butters, he is carved corn-knife handles and stocking stretchers and tiny mounted soldiers:…
Must-See Spots in Boston, MA
Lush, 144 Newbury St., Boston, MA When I heard the bombs go off, I was standing in this shop with a tiny box of their “solid toothpaste” in my…
Salt River Canyon
When we drive through Salt River Canyon on US 60, the highway connecting the Tucson desert to the pine-forested mountains of our childhoods, I ask my husband to pull…
Guilty Parties
Every Monday morning before school, we assembled in class lines in the covered playground, from shortest to tallest. On the first day of second grade, we were the four…
After Steady Work Dries Up, the Aging B-Movie Queen Reconsiders Fright Night
The movie is a horror film. The movie is in a theater, at night. There are strangers in the theater. Your child is among the strangers, slouch- ing, in…
I was saying lily pads float without roots
after Eric Baus I was saying lily pads float without roots and my son notes I’m explaining things I don’t know he laughs and I sense a tug like…
Tete a tete
the most popular of miniature daffodils I’ve waited— seen others brighten neighbor’s yards—south-facing beds, low elevation—who knows what makes some hardier early on. There’s nothing…
Sometimes Housework Tightens Me to the Material Reality of This World
somedays poets read about birds while I cut out a sewing pattern the fabric should be washed before it is cut poets say thank you thank you thank you…
They Told Me a Dragon was a Phoenix That Never Rose from Its Ashes
Standing on the platform in Albury, thinking about dead carnations and chipped porcelain, thinking about gelid lakes and the ten years between us, diametrical distance, my mother lamenting her…