Apply Dagger

A bottle of poison in your hand, you shoved

your Stratocaster into my chest.  I swallowed

hard when the guitar couldn’t penetrate

my collarbone, gathered a ring of cheap technology

rushing rhythm to winding reels as even cheaper

cassette tape generation gaps fermented the flames.

Add more kindling; throw on some vinyl.

The ( Read more... )

I can't decide about these. Any opinions would be most welcome. Just if you prefer one to the other, even. Thanks in advance.

What You Told Me

Not enough to make up distant facts, the half-brothers

in Scotland who left you a house in their will

when they died ( Read more... )

Auspicious

I was waiting

and didn’t want to wait. Outside, everything announced

spring in the loudest of voices-cardinals, peepers, rabbit pelt

scattered where they took each other’s fur, biting, ripping

off tufts and shreds, leaving it soft in erratic circles.

First barefoot-all-day after pavement and sidewalks,

three docile leaves sprouting in ( Read more... )

Crossing the Road

The squirrel with no tail

hopped crooked across the road.

I leaned against my steering wheel,

trying to stop crying.

When a crow swooped close over

and the squirrel did an evasive half back flip

two feet in the air, I managed

to wipe my eyes.

There is always a reason

to evade, leave the larger tasks

and revert to cooking or ( Read more... )

Proof

Wash your tired curls with gambler’s soap

~Paul Simon

The morning after you lied to me I woke up

and found both trashcans upturned and scattered,

a big pile of bear shit halfway to where

one bag was drug well past the tree line.

Before I left the house I picked up mold

and wrappers, ( Read more... )

Puncture

“Now, the night is punctuated by gunfire.”

-NPR News, February 8, 2007

Gunfire is period.

Period.

Period.

My questions:

What was the night

punctuated with before?

Gunfire is period.

Period.

Period.

Question marks

at the conclusion of crickets?

Gunfire is period ( Read more... )

I am in shock.

I have heard from three friends who go to VA Tech and cannot get through to the 4th one.

My daughter was on the VA Tech campus yesterday attending an international street fair that was moved inside.

There is no such thing as a safe place anymore. I listen to the news and I have to turn it off because I can't stop crying.

My heart goes ( Read more... )

Molten

We were pieces picked up

from the abandoned swimming pool

two blocks from your house.

You swam there

until the neighborhood boys set fire

to the changing rooms.

Now there are still broken

swings and fractured pavement,

but no one visits.

The hinges were held with rusty wire,

easy enough to untangle and pry open.

We unformed in the ghost ( Read more... )

Auspicious

I was waiting

and didn’t want to wait. Outside, everything announced

spring in the loudest of voices-cardinals, peepers, rabbit pelt

scattered where they took each other’s fur, biting, ripping

off tufts and shreds, leaving it soft in erratic circles.

First barefoot-all-day after pavement and sidewalks,

three docile leaves sprouting in ( Read more... )

Sample lj cut.

Kara is showing off her lj skills. And Mara is grateful.