Friends

I come from a country so far away
that you may have visited only in your dreams.
My face does not bear the pale color of my palms.
I don’t speak your language at home.
I don’t even sound like you.
If you come to...

We all have the same little bones in our foot
twenty-six with funny names like navicular.
Together they build something strong—
our foot arch a pyramid holding us up.
The bones don’t get casts when they break.
We tape them—one phalange to its neighbor for...

Mad has decided to catch a vulture,
the biggest bird she can find.
 
She is so determined, and so inventive,
that by stringing together a rickety trap
of ropes and sticks, she creates
a puzzling structure that just might
be clever enough to trick a buzzard,
once...

Her
Focusing on blanks,
A, B, C, all of above.
Your eyes lock on mine.
Brain now a washing machine—
facts, letters tumble and spin.
 
Him
Tests are less trouble
for me since I have met you.
Is it possible?
Can having you in my life
increase the size of my...

On Tuesday
on the way to Tween Time
Alison is all bubbly with
guess-whos
and guess-whats.

“Guess who really stole
Mrs. Bagwell's ring?”

“Guess what Mrs. Bagwell
is doing now?”

“Guess what you and I
are going to do this Friday?”

I hold my hand up. “Whoa!
One guess at a time, please.”

“I'm so—”
I start to apologize,
but Albert laughs.
“It's not my birthday,”
he says.
I'm confused.
“It's for you, Bindi.”
“Me?” I say. “It's not
my birthday, either.”
Albert leads me to the chair.
He hands me the present.
I open it.
It's one of those
plastic trophy things.
It says: “World's Best Sister.”
I get all...

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where...

Gather 'round, ye scurvy mates,
I'm signing on a crew.
 
You there! Can ye tie a knot?
Ye’ll do.
 
I'd say you've snatched a purse or two.
Ye'll do.
 
Does the thought of plundered gold
make ye shiver?
Make ye bold?
Ye'll do.
 
Ha! You’re rotten through and through!
Ye'll do.
 
Phew!...

He laughed with a laugh
that he wished was his laugh,
but everyone knew it wasn’t.
 
When he laughed he would ask,
"Does that sound like my laugh?"
and everyone said, "It doesn’t."
 
The laugh that he laughed
that wasn’t his laugh went
"Hardy har har, guffaw!"

The laugh...

Tonight's your lucky night, boys.
Look what I fixed for you!
Stood all day in the burning sun
to make this son-of-a-gun stew.

Longhorn steaks two inches thick,
dig in while they're hot.
The coffee'll keep you up all night,
belly up to the pot.

You know your...

Katie kissed me!
Yuck, it's true!
My face took on a greenish hue!
My knees, like jelly, started shaking!
Then my stomach started quaking!
Slobber slithered down my cheek!
My consciousness was growing weak!
My ears were ringing, my head was spinning!
But, all the while Kate was...

When I am gone what will you do?
Who will write and draw for you?
Someone smarter—someone new?
Someone better—maybe YOU!

My mother sends me a black-and-white
photograph of   her and my father, circa
1968, posing with two Indian men.

“Who are those Indian guys?” I ask her
on the phone.

“I don’t know,” she says.

The next obvious question: “Then why
did you send me this photo?”...

O beautiful
was the werewolf
in his evil forest.
We took him
to the carnival
and he started
     crying
when he saw
the Ferris wheel.
Electric
green and red tears
flowed down
his furry cheeks.
He looked
like a boat
out on the dark
water.

Yes, I live inside the piano,
but there is no need for you
to come and visit me.

The room I entered was a dream of this room.
Surely all those feet on the sofa were mine.
The oval portrait
of a dog was me at an early age.
Something shimmers, something is hushed up.

We had macaroni for lunch every day
except Sunday,...

Knocks on the door.
Who?
I sweep the dust of my loneliness
under the rug.
I arrange a smile
and open.

O beautiful
was the werewolf   
in his evil forest.   
We took him
to the carnival   
and he started   
   crying
when he saw
the Ferris wheel.   
Electric
green and red tears   
flowed down
his furry cheeks.   
He looked
like a boat
out on the dark   
water.

The first day of Christmas,
My true love sent to me
A partridge in a pear tree.

The second day of Christmas,
My true love sent to me
Two turtle doves, and
A partridge in a pear tree.
...

Your world is as big as you make it.
I know, for I used to abide
In the narrowest nest in a corner,
My wings pressing close to my side.
 
But I sighted the distant horizon...