he wants to run again, like the golden man on the top shelf who gathers the dust, stick left behind, feet in the mud, camping and carbolic soap and kissing a young and joyous wife, and walking up stairs without that nagging tug of frustration, because it is beautiful to be young and ready to […]

December 24th, 2017 This morning, I helped my father remove leaf carcasses from his tenant’s gutter and imagined him slipping off the ladder I was told to hold. A part of me wants to believe that he would scream but I know he wouldn’t. I know his body would strike the earth like a fist. […]

if I could wake up this morning and find five shades of brown nestled under the furry pine leaves of hanged angel wings I would first go to the cathedral and press my brown fingers into the brown paint and my thumbs against all the ceramic cheeks and the stained glass till they all look […]

You, who birth accidental tears and coughing storms, plow trails down my throat and remind me of your existence the next morning when I think the worst has passed. You, best cure to a stuffed nose, exorcism of the weak and untrained: an honor badge. You, who make white boys trying to impress their girlfriends […]

I want to want to need to do something I need to want to want to need to do something I have to need to want to want to need to do something and the pleasure is in the having. Needing and wanting are just suffering in different winter coats but having is fulfilling and […]

I woke up from late afternoon slumber Caught you, hands curled in action Back arched against the Christmas tree Eyes gleaming towards the waning December sun You clutched a Yankee candle that sat stil The leftover wax arresting it To the prison of the windowsill From the last time we had a candlelit dinner I […]

I wish to see the man in the moon, I never knew what it could ruin, when men above hide from my eyes, like Rorschach blots I can’t disguise. “We’ll tell the moon goodnight,” she said, Her nightgown white beside the bed, my words stick fast before I choke, She cries. I leave. I never […]

Before the dawn that walks the northern morning from the moors; before the swans sing winter on and cough the fog upon the ponds, we ask that through the Christmas mist and bells that bring December in you pause and long-remember this: ever through the blizzard lives the hospice on the hill, sleeping in the […]

light of daylight, light of december daytime, 52% of a day not darkened, light of sun, soon sunlight on moon reflected, lightning collected, light of LEDs strung around the fireplace, fireplace light, light playing at light of lightbulb, bulb of light, soon daffodil-light, soon more-light, warm-light, and not these trees in photosynthesis-frozen half-light, street-light-lit night, […]