The Last Bite of the Emergency Apple

Silver Canyon, Santa Catalina Island

You take the last bite of the emergency apple,
while the teeth-y skulls of Barbary goats stare up from dusty shale,
from boulder strewn creek beds dry now in Indian summer swelter;
you tread unstable canyon avalanches that make new
valleys with now unfamiliar trails, while heat climbs out of the century,
beyond the untenable forecast. When you yawn and walk
ten paces to the shade, vaguely aware it’s not supposed to feel like this,
you recall unfathomable ponds from underground springs
were once enough to …

Wet Origami

In honor of Akira Yoshizawa

 

Precision, order, diamond creases
no staircase out of poverty

no airs: visionary, patient, art expects
nothing in return

formulae to map root
papyrus, our first unfolding

to throw it all …

Calendar

Why are our lives so full of things

that didn’t happen? We carry
phantom luggage of journeys
we never took, leave futures
packaged behind us in the past,
awkward gifts we …

Don’t Cut the Urine Sack

Picture Bill Faulkner with a shot gun,
a million miles from Yoknapatawpha,
Mr. West at his side, screenplays
buzzing through their brains,
liquor waiting in the hip flask.
A wild …