No one saw him climb over the Hesco* barriers, so he just appeared and walked under the lights where no one ever goes. An actor who moves in my sleep, he talked to the air, his hands tucked under his arms. A boy who might have been cold or wired.…

The Following Shadow

The sky like a cake dish curves, has dimension, contains us in an element like water. Everywhere invisible currents cut through and feelings prepare to give way to others. Birds practice ascending declensions of birdsong: Amo; Amas; Amat. Random clouds dream and pass over. They leave following shadows like a…

The Vultures of Mumbai

A dead body must be eaten, the Parsi tribe believes. To burn or bury a body will taint the earth, the Parsi tribe believes. In Mumbai, the Parsi tribe sets their dead atop the Towers of Silence on Malabar Hill for the vultures of Mumbai to eat. In Mumbai, the…

Sonnet for the Driveways of Our Childish Years

All the tennis balls that our Gretzky curves couldn't guide past the taut rubber screen of a shooter-tutor cratered garage doors. Personal moons for the parties we missed, where some young men made the porch-like climb to violence. For instance: I knew a kid who got pushed to bite the…

Estate Sale

It was late November when she died and frost covered the ground. It had taken the undertaker longer to break the earth in order to accommodate her casket. The entire world was frozen solid. The mourners would have brushed against each other to block the cold had there been more…

Aletha

Scythe on shoulder, Time comes to cut the meadow, heavy pipe in mouth, smoking Five Brothers tobacco. Popping daisies, laying clover in swaths, he will not be done until he mows the timothy too. How you stood in yellow dress in the swale of spring beeches, what kind of flower…