While my mother was getting her stomach pried open to remove a child formedwrong side up, my father sat in the hospital lobby balancing yellow notebookpaper and pen on legs half-feeling and unsteady as he…
Browsing Category Poetry
The Wasted Pupil
after A Field in England I’ve been here before. A walking ghost before purposeappeared. Eyes rolling, billowing black sleeves, a manleads a group through a field. His smile shrieks.The others hold the corded rope tied…
The Blessing
Most of us hand off traumaslike traditions, the bloody, mud-crusted baton a father bats his son withbefore the boy takes it running off into the dark future. The pain of being humanrains down fire unto…
“Stories We Were Told” and “Sirens”
Stories We Were Told for Catherine Corless The young warrior Fionn didn’t mean to steal knowledge. He just burst the blisteron the scale of a mythical salmon roasting over the fire. He sucked his thumband…
She Fools Me Every Time
When I discover my shoeunder her pillow and my credit cardsfloating in the tub, I kiss herfor finding them. Vile animal, she calls mefor taking her clothesand washing them. I confess. She changes my name:…