“Ode to Timbuktu,” “Classical Allusions,” and “Lightning Strikes Twice”
Ode to Timbuktu If only our youth were engrossed with Prokofiev and Buddhism, as were Ezra Pound and his pals back in the day; if only the young…
Erotic Cake Alone; or, One Fat Man’s Rock Bottom
“Rock bottom” is a phrase usually applied to alcoholism and describes the point at which one recognizes they have no choice but to get sober or die.…
Three Autobiographical Poems
Apartment Near the BQE (After Edward Hopper) Light coffee, mostly cream Sun slanting through the screen I fell asleep again Just after you had left…
World of White
Fresh snow is all around me absorbing every instance of sound, lowering the ambient noise by trapping the air’s vibrations between the snowflakes.…
No Return
He tried so hard to make the bad thoughts go away, but they kept circling. Ideas of self-harm collapsed upon one another, creating an avalanche of…
Chin Check
"Call on Me in the day of trouble, I will rescue you..." --- Psalm 50:15 “Mr. Binns?” “Yes?” “I’m calling about the check you wrote for some…
“I Wrote My Phone Number on a Telephone Pole,” “Raining Since Yesterday Afternoon and it’s Still Raining,” “Father,” and Other Poems
translated by Xi Nan I often say that poetry is a kind of reality. This reality crosses the line between dream and daily life. Some of the following…
Meth and Honey Jar
She says she is gonna kill herself after I take a phone call with a writer friend, so I go into the bathroom and lock the door. I stand there and…
Field Recording
I looked over at Connor and saw he really needed to ash his cigarette. Before it all fell to the ground, I noticed how it almost matched his eyes,…
Don’t Make the World Worse
“Don’t make the world worse” was Iggy’s mantra. He thought this while overlooking the point where the Santa Ana River feeds into the ocean. He…
