Poetry
The Angle of Repose
Unlike the western slopes and save for the Thompson River, / the northernmost edge of the Cascade Mountain Range / is dry and compulsive. You climb through Engelmann Spruce / and Ponderosa...
Cockatoos
Yes, we've heard their sad repetitions, / the 'pieces of eight', the rote 'Pretty boys', / dropped from tired beaks like peanut shells; / birds bored far beyond the thinning bone. /...
Breast Reduction
Beep beep beep beep the regular heart beat. / Whoosh, ventilator for every breath. / Acrid smelling blue paper drapes cover her face and head like an / umbrella, / Lay along...
Contest Winner
Alice Underground
Night-blind she fingers the rosary, wraps it round, / mumbles prayers by rote. Only the feel of the beads / slipping through fingers, knots to climb. Railing to cling to / as...
Contest Winner
the colony
china doll in full fatigues / splayed across the jungle floor / / yellowed curls quibble against lex naturalis / encroaching vegetation / moist and fertile / eager to take root /...
Contest Winner
New Old Place
We move into a 90-year-old building / on top of Seattle’s steepest hill. / Cascade of pavement breaking onto / Mercer Street, wet palm of the city. / This reminds me of...
Malcolm X: The Last Interview (February 21, 1965), with Vogue (via James Baldwin)
I / / Race is a masque— / brown, in my case; / / and it’s a mosque— / blue, in our black case. / / In my opinion,...
When the Dead Outnumber the Living
When the dead outnumber the living they will spill forth from purgatory and come back to / reclaim their condos. They will take back their steak knives, they will uncork your /...
Into the mouths of payphones
Night after night through cities and villages / she says his name: / Amsterdam, Namur, in Paris, / Sagres, Ronda, San Sebastien and Anglet / Hallo, ist — zu Hause? / / Berlin,...