Browse Topics
Family and Relationships
Selected Poems
— from “Things My Daughter Pretends” | that she has fairy wings that she / is seventeen that she can talk to dogs / in dog language
November 2019Gritty All Day Long
I thought tryouts went great. I played catcher, just catcher. You may ask, How solid was my receiving with that lingering double vision? Well, I’m happy to report that squatting behind the plate was a miracle cure.
November 2019
Someone To Listen
The first time he calls the talk line, it’s because he wants to die. Whatever has happened in his brain has made him a stranger to himself.
November 2019
What To Expect
Try to avoid symbolism and metaphors, and leave fate out of it, too. Fate was not preparing you for this loss when you were an eight-year-old farm girl and held that stillborn piglet for hours in the barn.
November 2019
Sleep Study
I wake at 2:34 AM and lie in bed staring at the ceiling for a couple of hours, beating myself up for having awakened way before it’s time to get up.
October 2019
The Extra Year: Selected Poems
— from “Almost Done” | My wife has taken Pepper to the vet this morning. She is losing her hair, doesn’t like her food, has growths on her skin, moves slowly after eighty-four dog years.
October 2019Goodbye, Sugar Land
I was still exploring my power to hurt others and was continually surprised by how potent a single sentence could be. I watched my mother’s face waver and then crack open.
October 2019
Worship
A miraculous experience, a mixed-faith couple, a big fat question mark
October 2019
The Middle-Aged Joggers
We gather beside the pond in great ragged flocks, like birds. We run. Knees and backs stiff, we run — along the available routes, the ones before us, the paved and unpaved paths.
October 2019Green Freak
He has developed a shorthand response to my entreaties: Landfill, he hisses, and he walks away.
October 2019
Personal, political, provocative writing delivered to your doorstep every month—without a single ad.
Subscribe Today