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Abuelita

At the Paso Picacho Campground just after dusk, I walk past a big Mexican / family picnic: everyone chatting & laughing around a long plank table littered / with paper plates & plastic cups & half-empty bottles of Fanta.

Abortion

It’s the final moment — the tugging — / that’s the worst. A sucking deep within the pelvis, / where the body contracts as if / to cling to that tiny growth.

Draining The Lake

Like pilgrims visiting the tombs of saints, / smoky hands of angels on our shoulders, / we wandered the medieval city, stone churches / and tall half-timbered houses leaning over / narrow streets.

Ten Thousand Pearls

Selected Poems

— from “Ode To Invisibility” | O loveliness. O lucky beauty. / I wanted it and I couldn’t bear it.

The Dog Watched Television

The summer of my mother’s illness, / a season so hot and dry it might / have erupted in flames, we discovered / the dog liked television.

Selected Poems

Better Angels

Adrift, unpinned, their lost / Feathers settle at my feet.

The Empty Dress

March sky the color of smoke; / Carla’s red hair blazed, a torch song of hopeless hope / as she powered her wheelchair through the Vintage Fair / to help me find a wedding dress.

Into The Dark

In the old house I could see all the way up Pearsal Avenue / Until the houses and trees disappeared / Into the mud of memory. I stood at my window / And watched the comings and goings of cars, buses, men, / And especially the kid who lived next to the Hannigans.