Escaped Cobra Owner Jailed
“If we would have just had a lock on the cage… There wasn’t a lock.”
-Lawrence Matl
From an extended stay motel’s breezeway
in Arlington Texas a week after strapping… Read more
Zebulon Huset
Woe Be the Ruddy Bank Robber
Flee, flee but
Will you stay free?
You and your bundles of green
Quickly turned red
As you fled.
Fantasies of glee
In hopes of a shopping spree
Dashed for … Read more
He Skates For Gold
My eyes burn
there’s a lump
in my throat as
Nathan Chen,
in sparkling red
skates for gold
in the land of his ancestors.
His arms spread
like wings
in … Read more
I DON’T SPEAK UKRANIAN
I don’t speak Ukrainian,
no way to read their funnies;
Danila the Demonslayer
or the Red Fury. I can’t read
the letters you sent, Zayda,
in Ukrainian and Yiddish. I’m … Read more
To Be Continued
The news came before I’d entered the first letter
in Wordle; before my first cup of tea, harvested
by the hands of a single mother, praying for a better
life … Read more
ARE YOU COVERED?
A girl in a crimson sweater crossed
my path on my way to the beach.
I offer this girl’s sweater to you.
When I look back at my day only… Read more
Lived Experience
I know what it’s like
to grow up a straight white male
in an intact home
but I do not know
the lived experience of
women, Blacks, gay men,
abuse … Read more
Storm Surge Stories
Historic blizzard on the way. Milk, olive oil, chocolate
bars long gone from grocery shelves. Salt piles wait
in farms beside the turnpike.
Stay indoors. Don’t drive, and
if you … Read more
Not Over COVID-19
First came a headache to fell an ox,
a dull inconvenience to be sure,
followed by cold symptoms ‘round the clock
which … Read more
Anthropocene Suite
For Amitav Ghosh
1
Peel the pale, brown flesh
Hold the cracked shell to your ear:
Screams of the Banda
2
Escaping Earth’s hold,
Unmanned rockets race to claim
Living … Read more
Physiognomy
I’m the one with words on my face,
calligraphied by the steadiest hand. I cover-up
those dumb parts that cannot speak, choose not to,
instead live … Read more
A Covid Era Fall, That’s All
I took a tumble –
As if my body launched
An acrobatic feat
But somehow, not so neat
I failed to land on my two feet.
Yet, that’s not quite … Read more
In The Breeze
a swirl of ravenous winds,
pummeling down at high velocities
a trinket lost in the damage
a house, a home
more than a million and a half to count
tin … Read more
A ROSE FOR HER SISTER
She takes the garden shears with her,
Long handles, sharp blades
Crops burn in the Caucasus.
Aurora Borealis shimmers,
Streaming lilac over Chicago.
The irradiated night sky.
She steps lightly … Read more
Snow Hollow
Climbing through ice caverns
our refrigerated sweat crystalized
on cheekbones while long sleeve shirts
clung to damp arms like naked tongues
stuck to aluminum bars inside a freezer.
Dripping moisture … Read more