“A Certain Elegance,” “Dead Bodies Floating in the Ocean,” and “The Last Day of School”

a certain elegance the old piano your delicate fingers playing something from a few centuries ago there is a certain elegance with how you glide…


“No Names,” “Oh, This Grimy Laugh,” “I Scribbled a List of Things,” and “Love is a Killing Thing”

No Names You cannot see the dead unless you look out a window---behind you---from a mirror---where you see yourself looking out…………over your shoulder…


Three Religious Poems

Minor Seminary The ghostly weight of cassocks hanging on doors---the slight drag of polyester in the air, draped shapes without heads or hands or…


“The New Artists,” “Fine,” “As I Am,” and Other Poems

The New Artists They want to live as long as they’re protected, they want to be outlaws and rebels without giving up pensions or pools. They want…


“Cans,” “Slight Heat,” “Chaconne,” and Other Poems

translated by Xi Nan Cans We stay at home Like cans After disinfection Close ourselves in Isolated from the outside world. I'm a piece of material…


“The Ceasefire Sunday,” “I Am Bristol,” and “To Teleport”

The Ceasefire Sunday We wake up about noon, hungover and warm, our clothes still scattered on the floor, she brushes back her long red hair and says…


“Christmas,” “Jolly,” “Haiku for Home, No. 3,” and Other Poems

Christmas a moaning chorus of walkers in crooked gait, in waves Christmas indeed with the dead roaming from house to house a jolly jerk to the left a…


“Honk if You Love Freedom,” “Dream Girl,” “My Cab-Driving Friend John,” and “Naturally”

Honk if You Love Freedom I’m driving my taxi down La Cholla Boulevard when I see a large group of people well dressed and with comfortable faces and…


“Hot Dish Seeks New Church Picnic,” “Plain Jane Unchained,” and “Peer Pressure, Circa 1977”

hot dish seeks new church picnic Hunger is cold, but appetite is hot--- she got hot and had to hide it. (Here’s the church…) So she made a wall to…


“Let’s Not,” “A Poem Written After Viewing Several YouTube Videos of Poets Reading Their Precious Works,” “Facebook Conversation with a Small Press Editor After 22-and-a-Half Cans of Beer,” and Other Poems

Let's Not Let’s not be melodramatic let’s not wear turtlenecks in the sun or scuff our boots on purpose let’s not stand at the podium and apologize…