Category: Poetry
Departure
Youngest leaves for college today. Our house appears to understand. Our house appears to understand. Water heater breaks, ceiling weeps. I grab a mop, sweep up the weeps. Sam the Appliance Man is booked. Every plumber in town is booked. She carries on, keeps packing up. Nothing stops her from Read more
Loneliness Looks Like Hunger
For a while, you lived in a room without a TV Or a garbage disposal, and it was so quiet You heard the refrigerator moan, two dogs Barking at each other in the alley, somebody On the roof watering. You’ve been alone all day Except for 10 minutes when the Read more
Siren
A knot binds tight in a birdcage chest pulling taut like harness straps; breath falters edgily in gasps and gritty gaps struggling for free passage in staccato, high-heeled beats. Achieving lung-full, fresh, rejuvenating air: an impossibility. With the bindings, a nervousness attends surveying coldly from the sidelines; my play stutters, Read more
Mirror Talk
Be yourself if you want to kill all demons inside your head. My therapist advises. Talk to yourself in the mirror. I look at my reflection, its mouth opens, wanting to start before me. But the voice is not mine. Yes. You heard it right. I am Miryam. The pretty Read more
Shapeshifting
The shape of heavy tears streaking down, earthwards, journeying to find our loved ones faces, again The shape of trembling lips the very moment we recall their forevermore absence as we write the date, on this day their birthday The shape of the book on the shelf in the store, Read more
Angel’s Eye
A lone woman wades through sea green laps of city-grade fountain water under the specter of the Angel’s eye. At noon she folds prayer rugs of teal, sapphire, and gold in neat stacks; hangs rosary beads onto a wooden board bearing crooked nails. Seeks Jesus’s son through spoken word and Read more