The original version of this poem appeared in Banango Street
Graveyard Shift
We don’t know. The enormity
of a moment furrowing cracks
into borrowed vertebrae. Snake
like. As if moving in shadows
absorbs the solidarity of grieving. In
suspension of loving incompleteness.
Our lives, touched. Electronically,
years ago. Aren’t you tired of the
graveyard shift? Time is eating
and we’ve pretended so well that
we’re really well. So, did you win?
There is no proving that when you
look up into the stars that it is in
parallel to children that pin hopes
to stuffed animals. Still. You perch.
Porno magazines at the dentist,
lingering honesty. A terrible joke.
poems
-- Graveyard Shift in Banango Lit
-- Apartment 3C 100 Word Story
-- I'm Sorry in Josephine Quarterly
-- 2 Poems in The Mackinac
-- 3 poems in Brickplight
-- 2 Poems in Public Pool
-- City Music in Driftwood Press
-- I said to my God in Crab Fat Magazine
of want
The original version of this poem appeared in Prick of the Spindle
I want to talk about
time. Tearing apart.
The way geography
fooled the stove inside
the living room & listen.
I want to know how
I’m supposed to light
in a city captivated by
the midnight thought
puncturing daytime.
Tick, tock masking
distaste of emptiness
inside millions of beds
bruised with want.
‘Cause I don’t want
compensation hunger:
something about someone
else.
About you or an oil
mark flowering inside a
broken refrigerator.
The teapot is screaming.
I want spent time with
tangled limbs.
Absolving lie after lie.
Folding grief into beauty.
circus
The original version of this poem appeared in By&By poetry
IF this is a test—
Let’s just say.
IF this is a test—
There is a lot
to apologize for.
I am always
unprepared.
The way one
slows and gapes
at car accidents.
Searching, surprised.
I am drawn toward
men with means
to mute me.
The way I tried
to breath sorry
between our
touching tongues.
Make our bodies
work together against
our ailing minds: sorry.
What I don’t understand
is how to escape
this curve of familiar.
Clawing and grinning
at the place we
have come to get
away from. We have
all had the dream
where we are moving
backwards in clichés. In
my version, we don’t
tightrope love. We
are too knee-deep in
sorry. We listen for
sounds that feel true:
take me,
broken and howl.