“Keys to the Heart” and “Dogs and Humans”
Keys to the Heart Another, Father’s Day, Comes, And goes, He’s, Still, Young enough, To remember, Those, Few times, When it, Was, A special, Day, For…
“Thunder and Lightning,” “A Strong Black Woman,” and “Lining Up a Combo Shot”
Thunder and Lightning it’s always the calm before the storm the yellow sky that experience tells you leads to nothing good a few drops of rain light…
Hickory Dickory Dock
Even the moon landing was an act of discrimination. Blacks get cut out of everything; even the bombing of Hiroshima failed to include them. That the…
One Entrance But a Hundred Thousand Exits
I tried to write a pantoum poem about the repetition of my days I thought the repetition involved in the form would echo the repetition of my days…
“The Namby-Pamby Poetry Prize, Two Thousand and Whatever” and “Dead at the Apollo”
The Namby-Pamby Poetry Prize, Two Thousand and Whatever When faced with the depiction of the judge, to transfer $20 seemed unwise.…
“Minor Planet 1980 RE1,” “Constellations,” and “The Law of Conservation of Mass”
Minor Planet 1980 RE1 for SOPHIE i’ve replayed the scene in my mind so many times: you’re on the balcony, gauze curtains peeled back to expose your…
“Nineteen Ways of Considering Female Rape Fantasies,” “The Middle-Aged, Over-Ripe Woman, Who Used to Be Seriously Hot, and a Seriously Hot Mess, a Real Firecracker, as They Say, Settles in to Write a Poem,” and “Post-Pimp Restaurant, a Love Story”
Nineteen Ways of Considering Female Rape Fantasies for Karla Francis Smith, 1976-2003, and Jami Liz Macarty Wanting what she cannot want, what…
“Natives,” “The Island of the Fire Giants,” and “Rejection Letter”
Natives My street is home to everything from a dog hotel to a train station to a rowing club to a care home for old East Berlin drunks. The care home…
“Making Friends as an Adult is Hard” and “Don’t Tongue the Royal Croaker”
Making friends as an adult is hard My two-year-old son believes he can catch the sparrows. He flaps his arms. The birds cock their heads as if to say…
