“Blue Light,” “Evening Machines,” and “Street Flowers”
Blue Light Leaning against an old Chevrolet on Maudlin Street, I smoke a cigarette---hard---chuckling at the hisses and howls of alley cats beneath…
“The New York Zipper,” “Never Take Sweets from a Stranger,” “The Aestheticization of Violence,” and “Father of Lies”
The New York Zipper I kill for my mother I kill for my brother I kill to stop the bother And I kill to start the slaughter Street light shadow Smiles…
“Munk Hunting,” “When I Was Born,” and “Jersey Devil”
Munk Hunting Crazy is a word you understand later in life. When the bones sit old, the jokes with friends leave stories slashed and scarred. The…
“Body as a Metaphor,” “The Other Names of Home in a Desolated Country,” and “Love is an Alien Tongue”
Body as a Metaphor On a sunny Sunday, pastor said we should shout seven fires. But for me, my body is a flame. a burnt offering. a burnt incence.…
“Marble Hands” and “Bacchante”
Marble Hands I saw heavy clouds hide the sun's infinite glare. Rude melancholies wound Apollo’s bow. Like mist from a cauldron, they fill the air,…
Rolling the Dice on Love
You never wanted to get married, It just wasn’t for you, Who needs a flawed institution, With an awful success rate, Who needs conventionality, When…
“What is Another Name for Grief?” and “Farewell of Pains”
What is Another Name for Grief? I always get flummoxed about life's experience, Wondering how grief has become shelters In our household. The…
“Meditations (#1): Run, or Don’t Run,” “The Prophet of Regret (#6),” “Game Day,” and Other Poems
Meditations (#1): Run, or Don’t Run Run, or don’t run. I don’t care what you have done. No one knows and nobody cares. No one knows and nobody……
I Was a Childhood “Culture Thief”
When I was young and untamed, I dressed in feathers and leathers, founded my own tribe, and streaked my face in terra cotta. My neighbor and I were…
Burn Buried
One night, while cadging a lift off a friend of a friend, and four of us ending up cramped in a small car: three nondescript guys, plus Candy ---a…
