Poems

There’s a ticket in my Flannery O’Connor collection when called it’s your turn for serviceIt’s old and withered but may still workI hold it and wait to hear if someone will call outImpatient and afraid to handle it too longI become consumed with the crumbleThe 60 years it survived between the pages will be undone… Continue reading Ticket-holder

1. Forget the list of improvements Shop for distraction Prepackage all presumptions Assume you got it all 1. Remove the wrong from the case Dry until forgotten Season sans reflection Taste if it’s still bitter 1. Set the stovetop to burn up the thought Hide in the pot Watch for the rumble to rise up… Continue reading Recipe for Boiled Chicken

i am an insignificant piece of garbage in a wastepaper basket world not unbearably gross or smelly easy to ignore, sitting idle to be seen if eyes looked to be discarded when full. i am a banana long overripe sickly-sweet and hiding mold left forgotten in some lunch bag stored away for some such plan… Continue reading i am

promises and obligations more than is explainable the actions beyond having done or not done this agreement unrealized those missteps interpreted innocence first disproven without thought or care an unwillful resistance communication paranoia once caught in a dream a memory now incorrect a night no one wonders on or remembers to forget perhaps just aporia… Continue reading Force Majeure

Soap dries in the kitchen sink and I think of another life The sponge life, pure absorption The dishrag life, full of dirty water Left out to dry, and why shouldn’t it be? You left half the meal I cooked on your plate The bloody steak, too bloody, bleeding I felt the scratches where you… Continue reading Dinner with Two Candles (One Out)