Category Archives: Uncategorized

Germinating Tongue I left before the twang in the teeth of my kin took root in my vowels | but not before it settled just enough to plant itself in the furrows of my palate | Tiny seed-coat syllables shallow-buried … Continue reading →

Some Day Damp sheets pulled from the dryer too soon cool my tired skin and soak through to my bones. I shiver and review the day in my mind in the moonlight, the face in my memory less beautiful than … Continue reading →

Rumble Ladies and gentlemen, in the red corner we have the challenger from parts unknown, the number one contender and one of the necessary things you need for a happy home. This contender is critical and for complete happiness, it … Continue reading →

Hot Priests The calendar hangs on every souvenir stall in Rome, beside Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck circling Piazza Venezia on a Vespa. January’s a simple seminarian from Akron, but March smolders in his love of the Lord. A sullen … Continue reading →

SESTINA WITH RANDOM PEACE WORDS The bird Noah sent second was the dove, who watched the dwindling of the waterfall to puddle. Doves and ravens don’t agree, not even on the definition of love, let alone whether the wind’s an … Continue reading →

This Freedom Thing  (…for Harriet) There are some that will know you Only through the woeful echoes of ancestors Unripened dreams turned work song Pain-birthed melodies from slaves Whose souls uttered unlettered words Of courage and resolve It is for them … Continue reading →

Blood Moon Mandarin sun sets into a crimson sky like a love letter slipping into an envelope. Endless blue black tracing across a burnt orange horizon. Tetrad sister Robust and radiant in her ascension into the clear April sky. Foretelling … Continue reading →

A poem should be like a kiss    A kiss can be a spark From which forest fires explode Or a fuse is lit. Generations of calamity Or celebration May flow from one. So can a poem Fire up every gland. … Continue reading →

edits you’ve already written the poem but now you have to fix it the words are there but they’re awkward as first dance the clompy shoes the skinny legs the skirt borrowed from the recalcitrant older sister you’ve already written … Continue reading →

The Basement Stair There was a day when I, a little child, Was dancing in the sunbeam’s shaft that filed Or streamed across the chambered hallways of my mind (I was all joy, no worlds were left to find) And, … Continue reading →