Writing :: Uncategorized Poems
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The Garden of Fugitives, Pompeii
Now give them names. The boy crouching
on a barrel, face locked behind his fingers,
could be your son. The woman curled
around her stomach, making a hollow
between her knees and breasts, carries
your brother’s child in her belly.
Categories: Poetry, Uncategorized Poems
I’ll decorate the whole house with particleboard if I have to
We talked about you, Catullus, while we counted out the screws
and nails and decided to read the directions in Spanish.
We sorted parts, identified left and right panels, threw the box
across the room and left it there.
Categories: Poetry, Uncategorized Poems
I did not think I’d hear from you
Since you ask, I sold the spaghetti maker
last fall, at a friend’s garage sale.
A college student bought it, my friend’s orange couch,
and a block of wood we had been using
as a makeshift table.
Categories: Poetry, Uncategorized Poems
Signposts
Three streets ago if I had said turn left
we would have been there by now.
I think this is my fault and I think
you must have seen the signpost, too.
Categories: Poetry, Uncategorized Poems
If I & You => We
Corvine, we are going where
sweet-bruised oranges, saplings.
Not, Corvine, these words:
marmalade, peel cake, crepes.
Categories: Poetry, Uncategorized Poems
Swans on a Still Lake
Seeing you by the painting, I wanted to rip a feather
from one of the swans, dip it into the inky lake and scrawl
down your chest Have you ever been to Paris
in the fall, when the sidewalks are covered in mud
and the boulanger drops his prices by half?
Categories: Poetry, Uncategorized Poems
People Want to Know the Truth
So this is it: Dad was cremated.
We kept the ashes on the dining room table
next to the bills. We ate on the old couch
until the new couch was delivered;
then we ate on the new couch.
Categories: Poetry, Uncategorized Poems
Wisconsin Haying
I stood with my uncles in the dark maw,
watching the slow creep of the sagging elevator,
learned to stack, cross stack, tight pack
the hay.
Categories: Poetry, Uncategorized Poems