“Sleepless Night #33” is one of a series of visual poems combining pages of a Dutch novella with collage. I wanted the poem found on each page to represent the source of another sleeplessness. What I like in found poems is surprise, and this page delivered it, literally.
quick recoil as heatwave
tries to coax me
my bedroom, a sun-sluiced
temple
outside, maulvis
and bootleggers
cross paths
crisp, orange sky
waxy dawn
rising behind clouds
sister syncs the color
human body, silver, glass
el Templo de San Francisco, Puebla, Mexico
When Sebastian was told not to give his cloak away—
he was constantly giving away wealth (his last loaf
of bread, …
A miracle, my aunts and mother chorus—
Grandma’s up and about frying fish,
singing old hymns.
The last hurrah, Uncle whispers in my ear.
We’re on the porch looking out at …
the Tappan Zee of my childhood blown up today after
an inclement weather delay—the wingspan of that bridge,
its steel body carrying everyone always over the Hudson
to the Jersey …
My gardening habit was born on the day my mother died. Grief-stricken beyond belief, and thinking that her boundless spirit might linger still in the sun-loving plants she had long …
