these were they days you were strong. you tied cigarettes from the pear tree in the backyard you lit them so the grasshoppers saw a hundred tiny sunsets and as the ashes came down to the grass you said these were only growing pains. your hands are bigger than you are now listening to old [...]

A Hole In God from Gentleman Practice you appeared like a body bag fulla hymnal books unzipped in half I never saw so many door jams fall outta anyone’s mouth into math like that when Tennessee put its crooked smile on a wadded up map and sent you packin’ west good gospel gospel got god [...]

what are you so goddamn scared of, kid? put the pencil to the page careful as a last kiss and reckless as the first dive enveloped in the crisp blue drench that puts mufflers on your ears locked in to the blinking cursor blackness “go” she said “I love you” what do words have to [...]

A Near-Acceptance of Speech A door long left open just barely enough to try tempting the night from its corner where more stars were swept aside, mummified, and you peered at where the years had had their fill of me with something like disregard, negligence. Forever I’ve known only a homeowner’s woe-fulness—these serviceable tragedies hawked [...]

Burial Grounds When an elephant comes across abandoned skeletons, she will nudge the scattered bones and tusks, build a grave of branches, stay silent for days. She will know her way back to them. When the needle first drilled into the skin taut across my rib cage and tender breast tissue, then deeper, the tattoo [...]

A bag full of tangerines, unpeeled. Round like your face in pictures. Your hands are not shaking; fruit is always the answer. One word before the juices splat out Three before your grin Five grunts and the dry peels pile up Ten until the end of tea. And you and me You and me My [...]

Fold-Out I’m right of two brown bottles wearing your first initial in cursive. There are America-colored cans in the trunk, a redhead lawyering his father. Parents in your bed isn’t a metaphor – it’s a next like another as in day. *** You Get To Know Me Trash cans Latin microwaves— sex is over us. [...]

1. I told you that I was a roadway of potholes, not safe to cross. You said nothing, showed up in my driveway wearing roller-skates. 2. The first time I asked you on a date, after you hung up, I held the air between our phones against my ear and whispered, “You will fall in [...]

Woodshop I’ve made my marks on the wood. I’ve counted all my fingers. You say balloons are invaluable. I suggest radishes. There’s something about grandchildren. I mean, I wonder whether points in time can grow legs. I wonder whether the face of a clock has ever seen hopscotch. There’s chalk dust all over your fingers. [...]

gather your parts, any old junkyard components may vary: soft squishy head, two coats flesh, its mother’s eyes assemble in the school of fire solder limbs, wind torso—tighter than without constant pressure subject could learn self-repair, cultivate wings, muster flight, i.e. the systemic sin of rising spit for blood, springs for heart valves weld shut [...]