Kansas Promise
I knew a bullnecked man in Kansas, born of woman, plowman, fellow man, he turned into a swan. The dust and yellow corn of Kansas in the sun, the…
Why I Was Medieval as a Child
“Window” was vind-auga, if I remember old Norse right—the “wind-eye” for smoke to spiral out and light to finger in at some hollowed cranny high by thatch, open slot…
Islomaniacs
Aotearoa, since the Oligocene Drowning Event, has been overrun by ground parrots, improbable weta, bats that scoot on their bellies, daughters in a state of ecological release, free from ancestral…
Long Distance
If he were in hospital, unable to speak, I would hold his hand, creature to creature. I’d do that for anyone. Rough brush of fingerprints. Hello, I’m sorry to…
Three-Month Anniversary
there’s nothing in the etiquette guides for a marriage so short so I wake early on a Saturday, bring home Subway the egg whites because I want…
Blood Orange
I opened the door but you did not enter. It is easiest to blame the angel. Fact: a woman who walks beneath its outstretched wings will miscarry. There…
This Lightness
- in memory of Kurt Brown It shows tremendous presence without a lot of weight, this wine from Côte-Rôtie, this supermodel from Marseille who cheats at poker, legs better…
Book of Three Leaves
The Red Leaf was of the blood of Christ—“Advice to Little Children,” The New-England Primer, 1727 Berries of Fever-bush thrive incarnadine incarnate— though the first hard Frost has kissed Verbena, Hyssop,…
New-England Primer
Not the Book of Wonders, not the Way, not the Word, but crying in Wilderness, Make ready, the mightier Text is yet to come— I blaze the…
Threshing Time
Two by two the kernels hit the metal pail, blue stalks stiff as thin batons stripped green braids from yellow tails, nightshade cast in shadows between fronds. They…