I fell off the 30/30 train but here’s the last poem I wrote. Love Poem to a Broken Mug You bit two red moonsliversinto my handthe thumb and pointer finger knuckles I had been reaching into youwith the yellow sponge,forgot your chipped edgesin wanting to fill youwith warm suds Even now,blood leaking lazilyinto the water,I […]

I learned to write on my own,but I learned poetry from my mother.She will share with me a momentmost people would overlook –three deer in the backyardof her parents’ house –and still insistshe does not know the differencebetween my poemsand Emily Dickinson’s. She does not know the languagebut she recognizes the luminosityof moments;how our grandmotherwas […]

No No matter how gentlyshe places her handon his chest,his skin criesthat he has been slapped.For a while,she did not feelher own weltsas deeply as the woundsshe imagined beneathhis surface – fishooksleft carelessly inside him.For a while,she only felt safepulling him closer,wondering how safewas so painful. No is a circleyou draw around yourself.It is the […]

First Love You glorious heartfuckerupper,you manic-depressive 6-year fever,you tornado trail across my heart – you fucker – the thought of youmakes me hiccup with laughterwhile I am heaving my griefover other men.When I am violently emptying myselfinto pages, watchingmy brain firings manifestin desperate crooked scribblings,I am tickled, elated even,that your name is not among them.Years […]

Thank Goodness For the dark,for the cold damp breathwhen I open the door,for the heroism I feeljust stepping outsideinto the emptied streets; after months of brazenlight and activity,finally –permission to retreatinto myself,the necessity of becominga sanctuary.

I asked a woman tonight about her owl tattoo. She told me of being in prison, of seeing the ground owls outside and caring for one who was wounded. She was the only one they allowed to approach. Letter from a Ground Owl I watched you wanderfrom wall to wall as I lay in the […]

November 1st The sun was swallowedhours ago, but the streetsare safe now – the world isn’t scary anymore.I walk by the suburban-forestpalaces, orange and purplelights hanging groggy welcomesfrom last night. A few dropsland on my jacketevery few seconds, clinginguselessly for blocks. My steps are machinery.Moving feels safer –my surroundings rearrange,the people walk byand forget the […]