Damages

i. my injuries weren’t metaphors & yes i really do still live within a 1km radius of both, still within the chemical glow radiating from the pool where we exchanged spit on accident, obviously by the swirl at the drains, which accepted my vomit when Dad didn’t...

i think i should try therapy again

which is to sayi’m not sure poetry is enough anymore,which is to say, my life! is better than ever!which is to say, i’ve lived so long on the defensive that i’m not sure how to deconstruct this wall,how to chip away at twenty-some years of mortar,and i don’t think i’m...

How Memory Begins

a lane rope rackets across concrete. a hook clangs into place. i drive past a school; P.E. class in progress. tunnel vision ball game. your hand first to the wall. your feet splatting across pool deck to claim the one shower with decent water pressure. always racing....

Let me Show You a Lake

This is the lake and the grassy bank where Paula and I sat together, mesmerized by water and its connection to our touching heads. Here is where willows dipped their outer branches to sip and mallards cruised the rippling surface. Here occurred kisses I remember as...

The Mysterious Human Heart in Texas

after Dorianne Laux’s “The Mysterious Human Heart in New York” Aureate but spurred, the heart straps on her boots, bears the stickers, stomps away copperheads to catch her golden hour dalliance with the bluebonnets before evening mosquitos eclipse...