Dear June – Come in…

Dear June – Come in…

Dear March June – Come in… With apologies to Ms. Dickinson Dear June – Don’t stand at the doorDo come in. You are always welcome,Unlike…

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Be my Home

Be my Home

December came like a thiefin a black robe,at a fated hour while the Gods slept,and devoured my Dad. January cut me into shards,broke my limbs,crushed…

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Another Poem about Oranges

Another Poem about Oranges

–Mint Vinetu Bookstore, Vilnius So, Jonas said, you should write a poemabout eating an orange at the counter.It’s a tangerine, I thought,but didn’t tell him….

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Hush

Hush

A bed of pine needles hushesThe air of Autumn Forest.Black shaded river curls overDeep green stones.Space rests.Yonder, a woodpeckerSounds the core of a frosted pineWho…

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Cardiac

Cardiac

A UCLA boy, crisp in cotton shirts,you came at me clean, knocking me over.  Even your painwas pure back then, your sweat sweet. You ripped…

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Dream Poem

Dream Poem

I wish I could tell youI didTell youAnd youStillDoNotKnowIt still has been a year you do not knowI could tell you and you will never…

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Natural Disasters

Natural Disasters

1. The Derecho brings change spinningfrom its edge, a clock-hand turningfrom a pivot point in the Midwest,reaching Eastern cities in the foreignlanguage of straight wind…

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In the Summer of Nasturtiums

In the Summer of Nasturtiums

Take a look around the roomNotice the absence of scary animalsUnpack your lunch sack            you may wear out your iron soled shoes           this is the pandemic…

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Funereal

Funereal

I. Sheboygan, Wisconsin November, 2017 There is a postmark on your faceblocking your view of beyond.Leaves fall arraying the ground in an autumnal palette.You cannot…

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Homesick for the Dead

Homesick for the Dead

Stumbling through the dust of cremation bones I dream of rivers rolling wide and green and deep – time is an abstraction – you walk…

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Off the Bookshelf

Off the Bookshelf

The Essence of T’AI CHICH’UAN The Literary Tradition(Translated and ed. by BenjaminPang Jeng Lo et alia) My copy is falling apart;frontispiece with Chinese writing,Preface, Introduction…

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Bill of Lading

Bill of Lading

BILL OF LADING Contents received by Charon, Inc. for shipping via sea freight, for deliveryTo the nearest available port of the far shore, consigned to…

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If I made her once can I not make her again?

If I made her once can I not make her again?

In the garden among flowersthe thick black ants make ecstatic highwaysover and into the sweet honeypot of cow-tongue peonies,the black-eyeds dip drunkenly into the foxgloves,all…

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Letters

Letters

When I write to you, Hello,it’s marked with swollen      anticipation,and I wonderabout your interpretation:did I sound too curt?too friendly? too tender?too insecure?And when I write to…

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The Bunny Man

The Bunny Man

The electric piano comes in. It’s a Hohner Pianet.The keys go:Duh-Duh, Abm, Db/Ab,Duh-Duh, Abm7(b5), Db/Ab,Lloyd Loar’s Vivi-Tone Clavier.[1]Sharp staccato hits. Brighter, with less sustain.Did you…

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Young

Young

I don’t rememberif we kept any plants. If we fussed over themlike new parents worried that the waterwasn’t enough or the sun. I remember a…

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Miss Alice

Miss Alice

I remember the missionaries’ daughter Alice at Tullahasee,eating sofke, writing a Creek dictionary in her room,the stick she used to correct the wrong Mvskoke girl,teacher’s…

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Last night I dreamed my mother was Carl Reiner and I was sad she died

Last night I dreamed my mother was Carl Reiner and I was sad she died

They had nothing in commonbesides being smart New Yorky jews,Carl was a creator and my motheran other… while laughing listeninghis 2000-year-old man spinningin shiny blackness…

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Monarch

Monarch

                           an ironic name to give a butterfly                           one gets the distinct impression                           deposed, have been                           in the bloodiest of purges                           in whispers we cheer them on                           from the shadowy sidelines                           eagerly…

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Dreaming in Blue

Dreaming in Blue

Note: This poem is best viewed on a Desktop Computer with widescreen. The week before he was bornI dreamt only in blue, like paint names the…

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