the day the tumor began (1)
she rose early to swim. Laps, in the indoor public pool, an hour before the sun reared up. She reveled in a morning layered with contrast: cool air on…
Endorphins
On the fourth day, I was standing in the front yard stretching after a run (I don’t run), slightly high on endorphins. I could suddenly see everything O the…
I Ask the Questions Around Here
I ask my students, What’s at stake in this poem? I ask my daughters, Did you do your schoolwork? I ask my husband, Did you remember to cover the…
Against Cultivar
—after Philip Lawson (1859-1936) The chicken proves accurate in its back and forth: the way I traveled up from Virginia backward on boat, rail, and foot— never acting on…
To Get to the Other Side
Do you ever feel like an alien? I ask Cliff. He’s arranging my body on the radiation table. Usually I apologize for my muddy boots, but today I'm feeling…
Residual Storm Surge
Knee-deep in floodwater, I consider the rats. Not the live ones that fight in the alley each night, each entitled to its chicken bone prize, but the poisoned ones…
What Knowing You Teaches Me
—owes a debt to Anne Sexton’s “Just Once” Once a day, I see a flash of white-patched feathers, hear a cable wire mockingbird teach itself a new tune, and…
Confessional Poetry
—after Louis Simpson’s “American Poetry” What this is, must be open-dark, petunias rubbing against one another. What I contain, body knowing the movement of this verse, and the next…
Shifts: Temporal/Tense Poem
Tonight I am tired and will not sleep. There are many dreams I could have had. For instance, as a boy I dreamed about being older, like my brother,…
Our Once Content Father Explains His Failure to Organize
Voicemail: When you’re young John you try to keep all of your memories in order like organizing all of your small accomplishments into a box John something to fawn…