One of her dime-a-dozen lovers probably beat her. That’s why she split. Who knows. Took her car, a beat-up old Chevy, and headed north pass Malibu. Maliboo? That’s right. Somewheres up there she’s got herself a hideaway of some sort. Used to go on and on about it— big cherimoya sun […]
Read more "ROSA’S MISSING"After the demand is over, the heart returns. The heart is a devoted slave. It flickers true like a devotional candle that casts a shadow, monumental, on the walls of St. Saviour. The heart will always return. Each beat of the heart presses, presses on each page of the book till it flips […]
Read more "THE SOUND OF BLOOD GETTING THROUGH AGAIN"That look ahead is winding down slowly as what I thought was faith I find is hope. Last night I heard a lizard scream— no bigger than a minute-hand— caught in a web of dust. Only I could have set it free. I did what I had to do. Today, now, […]
Read more "ACCUMULATING THE PRESENT"In the year of nectar: rich neck kisses. Soothing songs we played, didn’t we? And you said it was possible to never really die. God, but the sun was warm that year, the juice sweet, the loving fair. We didn’t need encores then, did we? And you said it was impossible to ever […]
Read more "SOME SUMMER"No. Do not touch me. Let me be. Let me go on as your rhinestone window lady. When the Santa Anas blow and your hammock tangles in the trees, I’ll still be here at my window, sweetmeats in taffeta. As I raise the black nightshade, my eyes will search the pandemonium— for you, […]
Read more "END OF LENT"There where the sideoats grama grew They stepped, hand-in-hand, as the chief And his sister and the tribe had done two hundred Years before, up river, up on the bluff. A wall of rocks directed the buffalo Over the cliff, the San Saba waiting As only a river can do, while One lone heron […]
Read more "GRASS"The clouds went one way. Black birds went the other. Why must we bother to record the days when all that comes and comes undone goes forth without any aid. Calendars of other years were torched and set a-sailing. This should be the way of all yesterdays. This could be the way to the […]
Read more "PATHFINDER"The flames remained all night from fiery leaps at twelve to secretive coals at dawn. I slept off and on, like the fire. Once I tried to wake for a sip of your beer but all I could see were Your foot soles and hear the painful scratch of your pen. You Wouldn’t have […]
Read more "SECOND MORNING ON MERMAID AVENUE"Capillaries. Organelles. Multi-nucleate fibers. These are a few of our favorite things… And a few of the things we’re made of. All of us. Every single last one of us. That is, if you’re human. A miracle. That’s what it is. Aorta. Ligaments. Microvilli and villi. Lymph ducts. Scapula. Stratum germinativum. Biology. It’s the […]
Read more "IT’S ALL THE SAME"If I could trace it out full and sure— an index finger’s worth— I most assuredly would. If I could call it out in an opera of elephants, gray and wide— I certainly would. To dribble it out, to dabble about on the viola and let it hang its whites on a […]
Read more "OTHERS DENY IT"