extinguished when she leaves againI’m left to admire herdeparting figure, the wayher country/western shirtclings to her slender back.I count the tarnishedsilver socketslacking rhinestones likedead stars sequesteredin the Persephoneconstellation.an affair definedby absence. ~ union station, Nashville of course, it takes me onlyfive minutes to get readyfreeing me to linger nearthe doorway of the bathroomwitnessing Sera’s ritual,her […]

Heat Lightning Is just normal lightning That’s too far away For the rain and thunder To reach. I always thought It was a magical kind of summer storm: All the marvelous light with None of the dreary consequences. I was just as disappointed to learn That shooting stars are also a misnomer. They’re just fast […]

INTO NICARAGUAWe played nice with the officious border guards.They stamped our passports like driving nails through the paper.Villagers paid little attention to us.We looked as harmless as a light breeze.We drove up and down hills and around cattle.When lost, we asked for directions in broken Spanish.Rations were kept purposely low – rice and beans.Our stomachs […]

Songs about Christmas and being at home headlights melt forward as slowly as candlewax rolling away from a flame. the traffic this evening is frustrating outside my window. it runs up the quayside toward heuston and past castle- knock. and runs into the city and west toward the port and some of it splits toward […]

CRYPT IN THE SKY Order me up, no one knows where this crypt in the sky like a condo on the 5th floor suite don’t sell me out over the years; please don’t bury me beneath this ground, don’t let me decay inside my time pine casket. Don’t let me burn to cremate skull last […]

DEMONS The demons that dwell inside my head are coming out now and I greet them with a resigned malice while my neighbors finish dinner, help their children with homework, put dishes in the dishwasher, discuss finances, take their pills, finish watching Jeopardy.

GOOD LUCK FOR THE DAY I’m walking along when I see this middle-aged woman at the top of a short flight of steps trying to pull a stuffed chair through a doorway, so I stop and call up to her, “Would you like some help?” Checking me out for a moment she smiles and says, […]