Thoughts on Silence 1. I remember reading that once you go from observing a conversation to participating in it,half of it is lost to you. The sound of your own voice ripples your vision, warps the picturebefore you. Your thoughts thicken like concrete. Certainty seduces you. You begin to forget how much you did not […]
poem
4
Reasons He Thinks She is Crying She was having a nightmarebefore he woke her. She is too attached to the little boy who is sick.She wants him to be ok.She is tired. She feels too much.She thinks too much aboutwhat she is feeling.She went to a poetry reading.She still reads her ex’s blog.She looks for […]
2
The Unnamed I wonder if she is jealous of widows,who have a wordthat can describe the shade of lossthey have been stained. I wonder if she stands in his doorwaytrying to read it in the bars of his crib,the neatly folded shirtshe would soon outgrow, the windows fullof dusty velvet light.It is not morningbut the […]
Pluralism
When I tell you how I understand myself,it confuses you.When I say, I am a plural,you look at methe one you can seeand frown.Inconsistency irritates you,picks at the edges of your brain.You cannot figure outhow to trust somethingthat changes so much.You cannot imaginethe parts you do not see. Look – here – each momentthat I […]
13/30
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 […]
10/30
Your heart feels the most crowded when you are alone. After you hang up, the air is still saturated with her voice,her sorrow hanging over you like a cloud. You cannotstop breathing it. Intimacy is knowing exactly how someonefeels from hundreds of miles away. Agony is knowing howsomeone feels because you are hundreds of miles […]
9/30
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 […]
7/30
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 […]
5/30
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 […]
4/30
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.