The midday sun boundless as the neighbor’s greeting. Hair on fire, I leave the lane’s narrowness to the oncoming tractor and turn into Ismail’s yard— gravel and palms. His wife smiles small sweat beads, bends down to dip into a pail of well water, wipes her brow and steps over a broom to greet me again. She can finish when Ismail returns from the garden,…
Dusk Takes Us for a Walk by Laurel Kallen
A reach for my small, emptied hand, as though emptiness were something to give. The fact of being separated in space or time. The grasp of wily nighttime, of soft blanket, of ways to respond, whispers close to silence. A combining together or marrying. I was wondering where we were. Years of ocean, waves – black, indestructible diamonds— cut toward and away from shore. The…
Hummingbird Skeletons
dessiedoesart: Hummingbird Skeletons
While You Were Out by Timothy McLafferty
Voila called and said you’re passé, offering to return your lab coat and reading glasses; Azalea called and said you’re next to drop your petals to the ground, but have heart, there’s always next year as long as you keep your roots; the rain called, said there’s no use hiding in the house, and you won’t always remember an umbrella; the ocean called, three times…
Plow by Timothy McLafferty
it was steel sharp as hell and easy to clean and I kept it that way sharp and clean and me and elvin went out in that field him pulling and me pushing and we cut into that black earth deep relentless we furrowed it but good and into the fosse not the bloody bever but the seeds of food and flower backs broke and…