Poetry
Confession
“I live” / used to say / having no way / stood in front of “i” / pointing the gun — which the shooting was by / right to the heart / pushed the...
The world is a bad, bad place:
The world is a bad, bad place / / And I know / Oh, I would know! / / Born backwards / big on my birthday / crawled cringing to...
Elsipogtog #7
day falls away to dusk twilight and still you resist standing still ogitchidaa’ikawe warrior woman jingle dress dancer hand drummer flag carrier smudge smudger pray-ers pray for continued life in the east...
“All Aboard!”
At dawn, when the ship seemed steady below me, its flamed helm pointing us west, I would take my rare strolls between Cancer and Capricorn, starboard, to watch the peril of my...
Laying Hands
I learned to love your devil’s touch, / Bruised my knees to match my skin, / It was safety felt within your clutch, / Or the clutch that safely took me in,...
the camp at musina
she sat for two days, waiting / for officials to acknowledge her. / reporters found her first, / told her story to the world. / / watch her wait in squalid...
How Is It I Came to Be Summed Up As I Am Now
How is it I came to be summed up as I am now? / Did the carbon in me pirouette through / cedar, a sleek fish, diamonds — or cities as ancient as...
Down to You
I trampled those days, a lion, believed / in myself with a ferocity that has since / never been the same. They were days / when self-knowing became real, a dented /...
It begins
It begins with betrayal / In not being able to express / The crushed grape in your chest / The taste of morgue in your mouth / And how the lions in...