Monthly Archives: January 2020

requires no great pilgrimagenor any red-eye flight to book.Upon arrival, there may not evenbe an altar on which to offerwhat is owed. Holy ground is wherever you leave your love. So every public bathroom stall withinwhich I have grieved into my hands.A certain Catholic church basement,still haunted by the sweaty magic of oldfriends long gone,Continue reading “HOLY GROUND”

You are the byproduct of your great great great and maybeeven greater grandparents’ first kiss. In the equation of historyyou are the long-awaited answer. You transcend all lawsof mathematics. Their history bent you into existence. Consider it for a moment. You are only here becauseone man saw, from across a train platform or mossy fieldorContinue reading “BLOODLINES”

is my kind of world. Hardly matters if a surprise downpour decidesto grace my walk home. I’ll face the sky’s burdenwith wet clothes clinging to small frame. If I runout of words to write, books to read, candles toignite and sit by, if I wake up one day and cannotlocate the face of a girlContinue reading “A WORLD WITH YOU IN IT”

Sometimes helicopters fall with fathers and daughters still inside of them. And at the same time there’s some sort of virus hanging in the air making fear point its ugly finger. Who is responsible for this? What wretched nation, what sick corner of the world? There must be someone tampering with the wires. And whileContinue reading “THIS WORLD GAZES BACK”

It is hard living on the edges of things. Try building a home on the precipice of a cliff. Tell me you wouldn’t live in constant fear of a sudden tectonic shift. I have learned that, when the body needs to be held, it makes a big deal of making sure the need is known.Continue reading “HOMECOMING”

That smile— when it’s almost midnightand our best friends are belting in the backseatour bodies full of greasy pizza and hystericswhen it’s a Saturday night and we’re as youngas the first day of a new season and we’rethe closest to comfort we’ve been in days, I see it plastered on your face— that smile,as ifContinue reading “COLLECTION”

today— only labored breathing. I have wornthis body limp, my heart a hollow cathedral. Know this much. Today brought no spectacularrevelation. Instead, I crumpled and wailed over how complicated the mind is, how lovecannot always suffice in navigating its mazes. Where do I fit in your world of worlds, sweetthing? Is there still space forContinue reading “NOT MUCH OF A POEM”

Remember me happy. Remember me a giggling wild thing nuzzled into the freckled bend of your elbow. Remember me dancing, mandarin orange peels in both hands, under the soft overhead light of your apartment kitchen. Remember me flailing my arms to our song in your car, embarrassing you silly in front of all the othersContinue reading “IF THIS IS IT”

I begged God for your pain. I said Make me your first pick. I raised my eager hand for the choirs of angels. I wept Give it to me instead. I pleaded Him to make me a tabernacle for your hurt. Take a swing at me. I can handle it. I might be a tremblingContinue reading “IN THE CHAPEL TODAY”

were to walk straight into the marrow of my life, I’d tell him to leave. Pack your bags, walk backwards out of that door like a movie played in reverse and back to whatever fairy tale you managed to escape. I want nothing to do with perfect. Spare me the drama of happily ever after.Continue reading “IF THE PERFECT PERSON”