I.As all the women in my life had done it,with rings through both lobes,then others creeping up the curvature of the ear,a crescent made of ellipses.But beauty in the variation, too,with dogged studs like stars in one(An allusion to celestial bodies is recalled),and another, more coy, closer to its master.They were all as old as …
My fingers are ringsglinting bits of gold and silverbut I never wore them like that fingers are meant to be of a ________you can build a boat with your fingers, my father saysmy fingers are needlesmy fingers are the springs of an iron cotmy fingers know the difference between what a man thinks and what …
I saw a hawk while driving and thought ofyour gentle fingers. The rabbitin his talons played a foreign tune, sure that there was silence in heaven. I saw other things too from my window.There were ten knightly men going forth,a woman unfurling the jib of her sailboatthe synthesis of which was your charlatan courage. Deeper …
Like choking on your hair,strands clumped by weight and by curlinesshad the heart beating faster than ever,with hands revealing more than they meant to. & what’s next is something strange,Visions of your bones bending and becoming my bones.___________________________________ Or fear of frigid nights,a wracking cough that persists for days and days,I’m so neurotic. The Wind’s …
A Golden Shovel of Frank O’Hara’s The Critic When you pass by, Istand nearly still and cannot breathe, cannot think, cannot act, possiblybecause it is every word of yours that I hang onto, and think- ing of what you said to me, either this night or the other, is nothing less than torture. That is …
This is only about blackboard chalk,about the secret, savage things thatgo on inside washing machines.Lock the doors! Throw the brains out! The longer ladders were in the back of the store, but we steady forgot to fetch them – surprising, given the lights werealways burnt out (Oh, the breaker’s tripped). The wicker baskets sold were …
There was absolution in the morning,with pillows still slightly of youand things feeling more than just real. Nonsense buried in the pillowwas a nose unhinged,dreaming it was welded on tight. Ears plugged with Styrofoam were notthe only way, but an effective one, surely,as words came howling in otherwise. But she was the Midnight Keeper,and her …
Let my table hold a place for your name,for years and years after you’re gone.With pearly eyes I would ask you to sharethis final, fragile meal with us. The beat switches, and there is frigid chardonnaywith ice; a time when you were so young I don’tquite believe it’s you. You live on in coffee cans,in …
We became inseparable after I cheated and all words I spoke thereafter were breathed directly into her ear. She said, Tell me what y’all did. she said, I want you to pretend you’re with her when we do it. We stayed together mostly because we didn’t know how to live apart. Peas in a pod. …
Once everything, and then nothing,like mindfulness in the eye of a storm;the cradle swaying back and forth. Soft blue calm of a night remembered,one night meaning everything.Then flipped, with spit-flecked cheeks. The candle smells of vanilla and bergamot,and the shoe that no longer fits the fashiongoes out of style, recedes, dies. Everything held on one …