He’s Making a List
A year after American politics slid downhill
on a golden escalator, we were at The Whitney.
Urs Fischer’s “Standing Julian” was
melting. The giant Schnabel candle had lost
its head … Read more
United States of America
The Burning Face
If I believed in hell,
I’d tell you what I saw
was Robert E. Lee’s
bearded face burning
red hot with shame
for giving his heart
to that cause, “the … Read more
Syphilis is on the Rise
Syphilis is on the rise.
We can see it in our infants’ eyes.
No constraint in moments of lust,
we erode from transmitted rust
until birth pangs yield a newborn … Read more
I Do Not Have an Alcohol Problem
The big hand of time travels
in a circle, your mother’s
voice coming back to you:
Messa a fuoco, Rudolph.
Don’t follow your father through
the broken window.
Strange … Read more
State of a Union
An Abecedarian in Support of Labor
almost instantaneously, anchors across the nation
broadcast updates as Biden, in a UAW baseball
cap, walks the picket line to
demonstrate solidarity with labor … Read more
Saunasphere
It’s so hot, your brain sounds the alarm—
orders your body to pump water
from interior reserves,
hydrants in the blood, muscles, kidneys,
and brain itself—through dilated vessels
to the … Read more
Senator Sanders in Detroit (aspiration)
We won’t see 7-cent gas again
so, no floor sweeper is going to sit
in the catbird seat of a spanking … Read more
Remembering the Day
Howard Stern was on the radio then, obscenity
for everyone – or was it just reality
in language we could understand? Until a plane
broke through the punchline
to a … Read more
The Old Banyan Tree
Scorched, but still standing
the media said of the massive tree
in the heart of Lahaina after fires
blazed through Maui so swiftly, the sea
offered the best chance of … Read more
“Hanging onto Growing Threads”
With the dirt washed away, I hang up the laundry and my child’s wardrobe,
Then, I encountered the obstacle of running out of smaller clothes hangers.
There’s no possible way … Read more
Aloha I Ka Hamau
Ka’u mau keiki
Holo! Holo!
Holo i ke kai!
Aia ma luna ou ka hanu o ka deragona,
Ua hoʻolapalapa kona huhū i kou mau ʻāina kapu.
Holo! Holo!
Holo … Read more