The Day the School Fell
The day the school fell, the sun was preternaturally bright. It doesn’t shine much anymore, so every sunny day stands out in my memory like an etching from Mother Nature’s…
The Hive’s Heart • Burning Juniper
The Hive’s Heart At the heart of the hive is a kitchen warmly lit in midwinter. There’s a voice describing gold and yellow, their small but many differences. At the…
sad burnt fingers
Who wouldn’t fall apart if her husband vanished into the bad night,after she heard gasping and shuffling on her phone and he never once spoke?Who wouldn’t hug her own body…
Baby Girl
A long time ago, or just a moments ago, there was a little girl who lived with her mother, The Witch. The Witch was a good…
Smoke and Mirrors
It was one of the cold snaps they write about for years afterward, the ones that kill people on the streets and in unheated apartments. This was the Bronx, the…
Since Mom Died
The nurse looks exhausted and anxious, so I begin to tell her about an amusing experience I had this morning in a coffee shop. Usually, that’s all it takes. If…
Destroying Angels • Mathematics
Destroying AngelsAmanita BisporageraNote: Destroying Angels, Amanita Bisporagera, refers to a species of poisonous mushrooms. This poem is part of a larger manuscript, A Poet’s Guide to the Wild Mushrooms of…
Liberate
Theo is passing by a Church when the voice tells him to go inside. He goes. Past the double door entrance is the Church office and he finds the pastor…
Harbinger-of-Spring • Language Attrition, or A doe, a recent killing • Blessed Is the Fruit of Thy Womb
Harbinger-of-Spring Erigenia bulbosawhose fruit sometimes arrives before the leaves have fully openedAnd because the half-light of winter seems to fit …
Dead Indian Road
It wasn’t actually called Dead Indian Road anymore, but that’s what all Ashland locals still called the long, twisting Southern Oregon blacktop, even after the city council finally changed the…