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Poetry
The Cat
After my brother died, his wife was sure he was living / inside their cat, Rocky. He’s in there, she’d say, staring into / those blank, yellow eyes. Isma’il? Isma’il? Can you hear me?
May 2017The Diver
The Olympic moment I remember most / Does not involve gold medals / Or bright, enthusiastic faces in the Parade of Nations.
April 2017
Visiting Her In Queens Is More Enlightening Than A Month In A Monastery In Tibet
For the fourth time my mother / asks, “How many children / do you have?” I’m beginning / to believe my answer, / “Two, Mom,” is wrong.
March 2017Sometimes The Dream
My student blushed all over his bald head / as he confessed, laughing, / “I have those adultery dreams — you know, the ones / where you wake up in a cold sweat: / Thank God, thank God, / I didn’t mess up my whole life!”
March 2017Eternal Moment Of Running Wicked Fast
We run so fast these letters should be slanted, fastest at dusk when our breaths burn hot coals, sweat soaking our T-shirts, sneakers slapping pavement
February 2017Getting Into Bed On A December Night
When I slip beneath the quilt and fold into / your warmth, I think we are like the pages / of a love letter
February 2017Selling The Old Family Volvo
The young couple and their two small sons / Drive from the city to pay for and take the keys / To my old family Volvo — a car, like a house, / Full of memories, full of departures and returns.
February 2017Selected Poems
— from “Too Busy” | Have ambition and ego ruined my life? / Where have my easy days gone?
February 2017Selected Poems
— from “Wanting” | Wanting’s the thing, not the thing itself. / The thing itself no longer calls to me
January 2017
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