Hoodoos
Beyond this ledge a plateau rippling stone cones and spires capped in flat rock rows of pink and orange one behind the next like lines of soldiers I think about you, fatherstanding at attention, hand raised peaked white cap officer military intelligence airborne I knew almost […]
Great Green Macaw
Garnish of world, flourish of medieval manuscripts, you prance, one foot lifted, head held high, through goldand silver swirls. Bedecked company to kings and queens, chanter of wild entreaties— wings slathered turquoise, orange-splashed, and scarlet, you cross empires and seas, flyto forests deciduous. You caw and squawk quick-witted cries. Oh, […]
The Fig Leaf
Only two of them thereand a menagerie: spider monkeys leapingbetween trees, lions sleeping,peacocks flaunting gaudy featherswith eyes, the snakewho’d seen it all, now preoccupiedwith the disappearance of its feet.Why would Adam and Evebother fashioning leaveswhen plump purple orbshung beneath begging to be eaten?Adam’s mouth, moist with hunger—he took the first bite, chewed slowlyin the beginning, marveledhow […]
Riptide
My mother’s arm reaches out of the water and slides back in. Then the other arm. Repeatedly, they appear and disappear as they move her through the turbulent ocean. She’s swimming diagonal to the shoreline, almost like someone caught in a riptide. But she’s not. She’s going calmly— of her own […]
On My Mind
Not things that float—moon, jellyfish, dust in sunbeam, skins of ice, skim on warm milk, waftsof cilantro, sound of o inside your mouth, but things that curl—sheep’s wool, seahorse tail, doublehelix strand, three-banded armadillo, toes in mud, your breath on cold nights,and pulse—hummingbird wings, banana leaves in monsoon rain, high tide, cloverleaf quasars, echo-cardiogram […]