We saunter along the shore,
boys trailing behind.
Tender dusk, the wind
a sigh as we skip stones,
stride briskly between
the bulky boulders, climb and leap.

By way of the stars,
on the tightrope between the worlds,
the grace of the human form, risen from the sea
into the seer in the seen, kin to all life
across the pale blue dot, to live
in accord with our vision…

I can’t wipe chartreuse
from my brain, ever since
you used it in a game of Uno
twenty years or so ago
and it’s such a bold shade

Dark mummified roses standing in the vase,
gray spider webs hanging over every corner.
A broom wipes out the traces of ignorance,
reclaiming the territory once more.

Hold me in your arms just one more time.
Let me feel you surround me.
Let me feel your embrace.
Your solidness, your security, ever my touchstone.

Rumbling rain makes stable
rhythms that soothe
rinse clean thoughts that pry—scratch
between
the hemispheres at duel.

life is not a test you pass or fail.
there is no A+ to earn
no standard to surpass
no reward for finishing first.
life is a book.

January is alight in possibilities.
It’s feeling the cold air as you breathe it in, seeing it exhale out.
It’s the smoke the fire sends up the chimney to greet you from the outside.
It’s your back tingling as you warm near its flames.

Sometime things
don’t go as we planned
No forever marriages
loving children at hand

Sometimes we watch
the news with dread

Just beyond the road’s edge
in the country of black-eyed Susans
and Russian thistle—

just beyond the crumbling line
where asphalt stops and washboard
gravel begins—just beyond the turnoff

Where fall hangs on into late December are

scattered bay leaves, almond-shaped to the
petiole, petiole as boat draft, wake, tiny

battleships and destroyers from the

admiral’s sky vantage, arranged in naval
maneuvers on the asphalt expanse of Hastings

She had a baby
only two weeks ago –
2 pounds, 6 sticks of butter, a sack of flour
a bowl of apples, a bag of caramel sugar
2 pounds of a girl.

She weeps into the bowl of her hands,
her breasts full, her womb a spent sack
her baby, no bigger than a pup…

Tweet, tweet, tweet,
tandaradei,
set the scene
back in the day;
inside and outside
the heat for master and slave
too hot to handle
even in the basement,
even in the shade

Direct the intention seaward, where kelp forests sway like cathedral tapestries,
And the hush of the deep folds inward, a silence vast enough to hold the ache of longing.

Let your thoughts unfurl like sea anemones, soft and trembling,
Reaching for the light that dances down in scattered gold

three-legged cat crouches in the alley
one-eyed horse at pasture
white sun breathes on white stone

green figs cling
to the youth of their branches
resist their gradual purpling

soles of shoes

When I left you alone at night after three it was I think
The storybook moment and perfect ending: three dead
Maji dropping from the sky bounce off clouds. Spiritless
We disappear within the screams, the laughter; Pro-

Publica gone DOA. I’m almost nauseous having thought
Of the way we cook with human flaw; coleslaw dignity.

My childhood friend says:
I don’t believe in dinosaurs anymore.
I laugh
but he insists
he’s not kidding.
Stunned,
I search his eyes
for a glimmer
of the person
I’ve loved

It told me that I have a problem
I have to solve, that I’m the puzzle.
I could feel it study me, as I
researched myself. It taught me
if I go deep, it’ll all work out, a
mastermind of configuring the pieces
of my psyche, which it said in Greek
means “soul.”

Tonight, I choose to place my singular attention
on the moon, the orb of dust and rock
and its ghostly reflection of the burning star,
and breathe in the crickets and the owls.

And it is in the lightless chill that I wonder—
what does it mean to arrive, to find
comfort in a destination reached.

It’s not me.
The polish lingers,
black onyx screams
on each finger.

It’s been five days.
My nails are lit.
I’m not sure why
I try it.

in the basement
of the bi-level
where I live
with my parents
and older sister
in a small middle class
suburb of Chicago

For fourteen nights
Unnerved and trembling
We place him in an unfamiliar bed
As alien as we are to this white-blond Asian boy,
Our sudden son
His scalp razored bald
Tenderly, we wonder, by his grieving birth-mother

“Do Not Disturb” — active
Yet a cunning code still pierces
Viciously, into cloud files — memory/hate/love
Restore automatically if:
Emotional thunderstorm detected

Mother took the photo
With a Kodak Brownie box-camera;
The black-plastic handle,
Gray knobs of the 1947 model.
In the square view-finder lens,
Upside down