I pass the feeder and yell, Grackle party! And then an hour later I yell, Mourning dove afterparty! (I call the feeder the party and the seed on the ground the afterparty.) I am getting so good at watching that...
The feel of a much needed hug in a moment of sorrow An unexpected helping hand from the stranger The curl of the tiniest of fingers wrapped trustingly around your own A gentle breeze on the cusp of Autumn And the way a leaf...
letting the words fly like smoke uncurling from our mouths we lie in bed with dykes ten years our junior, make pot heaps to share, sleep in the same flannel sheets, plot colored artist collaborations underground and not top 40, draw the constellations from...
In this life, there are stars and there are stunt doubles.
Before I became one of those fathers obsessed with memorizing his lines, making peace with the Big Director in the sky who doesn’t like ad libs, before all that, I was the star of my own...
Naturally, broken glass, throbbing bass, a roll of bills and a paper bag passed between the hands of hustlers. Just as true: the rows of corn planted by the family at the end of the street. Even in this leaded...
You are the problem I propose, My dear, the text my musings glose: I call you for convenience love. By definition you’re a cause Inferred by necessary laws— You are so to the saints above. But in this shadowy lower life I sleep with a terrestrial wife And...
So I lean back & Redford asks, “Water warm enough?” & I don’t answer because I’m holding my breath. I don't know why he asks. He never uses the faucet to shampoo my afro—just an old clay jar. Redford fills the jar at the...
I used to pretend to believe in God. Mainly, I liked so much to talk to someone in the dark. Think of how far a voice must have to travel to go beyond the universe. How powerful that voice must...
“Anyway, it isn’t forever,” Chris said, “eventually you’re dead.” And we laughed
Besides, everything is better now. Not us but implants, blenders, children, heart attacks. There’s never been a better time to be alive than when you are. If you are. Black-throated blue warbler says chewchewchewchewchewww drawing...
I couldn’t be who I am today if it wasn’t for you being dead. It was time for glitter, nail polish, and locs. Glitter in my nail polish. Glitter in my locs. You wouldn’t have loved me loving myself; my joy rendered inconvenience. Sucked teeth keeping me your grandson. My love for...
I swim my laps today, slowly, slowly, reaching my arms out & over, my fleshly oars, the water silken on my skin, my body still able to be a body & resting at the pool’s lip, I watch other bodies slip through the blue, how...