Monthly Archives: February 2020

We are stardust; we are golden. And we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden. “Woodstock,” Joni Mitchell, 1970 Bathed in sunlight, I feel almost human.Must be the antidote to my strangeness,spine melting into wet soil, facing the ether.How strange it is to inhabit a body, mortalstardust, cosmic temple. Nothing earthlyhas ever eased me.Continue reading “VISIONS OF EDEN”

I do not like the motion my mind makestossing and turning with the bold inertiaof a spinning coin. I long to live as stillas a man-made marina. As a scaffoldedcathedral, no one to hear its song. To bethat free, no known vernacular, rootedwithout expectation. Sacred unmoving.Have you ever yearned to be a fortress?Unpolluted meadow, virginContinue reading “INVISIBLE MOVEMENTS”

Before there were screens we were magic.Before we started crossing streets with facesglued to glass, before we began seeking outlove in Google searches, 14,580,000,000results (0.68 seconds) but never one exactenough to capture the whole of it. I missbeing part of a world that loved me back,a living piece of its anatomy, apart fromthis instantaneous, delirious,Continue reading “LUDDITE”

It seems as if I am forgetting how to be gentle how to be less madness, more lavender wick candles, farm-fresh eggs, dog-eared pages of leather-covered Bibles, newborn kittens, off-key Christmas Eve carolers, dimpled baby hands wrappingaround larger pinky fingers, chocolate chip brownie batter, past-midnight waltzingunder overhead kitchen lights, country homes with front porch swings,Continue reading “DAILY BREAD”

after William Butler Yeats; Robert Frost Maybe in another timeline I would have chased the thrill of art,would have penned entire shelves of words by now, would havelong ago carved my name into the bark of Unforgettable, soulsuspended in that living tissue. But I gave up art for practicality.I surrendered myself to the laws ofContinue reading “ANOTHER DIALOGUE OF SELF AND SOUL”

I.Damp air, mold and mildew, paper-thin facades leavingnothing to the imagination. Even with the door lockedand secured by electronic keypad prone to malfunctionI knew exactly what so-and-so did last Friday night withan upperclassman she met while inebriated at one of themore notorious fraternity houses. Alpha something orother. I didn’t even have to ask, I heard.Continue reading “BEDROOM COLLECTION: 2/3”

What I really mean is I’ve been biting my tongueso hard I’ve left a sore so deep it hurts to speak.Karma from the universe, I suppose. She hasa knack for double-checking that she gives backwhat is owed. What I mean is I am trying to bemore easy moonlight, soft velvet of a beagle’s ears.More rockingContinue reading “WHEN I TELL YOU I AM TRYING TO BE A BETTER PERSON”

I grew up on Sunday night youth group playing Sardines behind the Catholic parish chapel under suburban stars. We used to intentionally hide in storage closets so we could sit with our crushes in dark stillness, bodies innocently pressed against ceiling-high stacks of metal folding chairs. It was the age of giddy purity. My comingContinue reading “BILDUNGSROMAN”

Chinese Kitchen on N. Main has been alivelonger than I have. 26th Anniversary, 15% offboasts curly lettering, origin Microsoft Word.I am stunned by the permanence of things.Last winter an old friend of mine used to peerinto the misty shop window with me, watchinglocals passionately devour steamed dumplings.We swore we’d try them one day but nevergotContinue reading “____ OR CURRENT RESIDENT”

after F. Scott Fitzgerald There are infinitely many kinds of love in this world. There’s Mom’s extra fluffy chocolate chip pancakes on a lazy Sunday morning after mass. There’s “Did you get home safe?” and “I won’t leave until I see you lock the door behind you.” There’s love that stays for good and loveContinue reading “DELUGE”