Ode Where Milk Was Rare
O, what country
aphrodisiac
even without her
hair
their praise a pink-
O, what country
aphrodisiac
even without her
hair
their praise a pink-
Lips, perhaps, in Pyrrole Red (pigment used in automotive finishes):
my first car, a small Ford …
From space the river is loose thread. Frayed but clearly discernible.
A wall but not a wall. …
Orion
He doesn’t know his belt’s gone out of style,
or that he needs a license,
that hunting has a season now. ...
with Lucinda Williams
Faulkner County reeks of burning leaves;
other days, smelt from the refinery.
A whiff of manure when the breeze …
Tuesday feels like every day, so today is every Tuesday.
This goddamn day won’t goddamn change
my going back and forth between the sure and doubt,
the front door opening and closing, the backdoor slamming,
mosquito screen folding over like a sagging flag,
bathroom faucet always dripping, water always dropping
to the rusted band around the drain, ...
after Patricia Cronin
It must be their feet tangled past the hem of the blanket
(a big toe pressed to the top of a pale, carved foot)
that make me pause, scroll back to this image ...
The wind had to do with the places we couldn’t touch.
The branches were the places we did,
lying at the roots
with your arms around me ...
If every life is four dimensional,
if your “now” is just one segment of your whole
and your body spans across the surface …
Keeps him moving all through the end
of summer night, nails loading the floorboards
with the heaviness of sleep that cannot ...
You taught me to accept whatever came to the door: a bushel of corn, two porterhouse steaks, a bag of bittersweet horehound candy—your favorite ...
A tarot deck fool
Looking back to see
if you are looking back at me
I'll trip right off that cliff
Once in North Dakota in my actual childhood I saw a hobo ...
Anyway, my band Preppy Haircut.
Venue asked what time we could loden.
I said anytime but I prefer hunter. ...
Smear neosporin
On my red knees,
Us hiding in the vines
Counting pea-pods
Holding three ...
There’s nothing more American than blaming empty space for a giant virus of its own making. Curiosity killed the clotted doctor, and kindness the rest. Really, it’s always …
Bone shade: the hip and pelvis
against dusk,
my arthritic spine, the blurring
lines between skeletal structures, ...
The hallways lead through the belly of
hospital, hotel, laundry service, nowhere.
These vague industrial spaces with safety doors
reading Alarm Will Sound if Opened ...
The Dalmatian sank from me
when I set him on the grass,
pausing to kneel before his bones
crumpled away. I knew he was reaching
toward death. I wanted to help him
snatch it in his jaws. ...
when sun falls a jellyfish this red
of aerosols the sea swims in my throat
stings of the jellyfish but not the fish
less sun less heat I’m ...
Do the obituaries of great men
mention their hobbies?
Raye Montague played bridge.
If your obituary appears in the Times ...