United States of America

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

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

Birth

 

You don’t remember what you were
given on the way here … A pale moth
labours sideways across and inter-
section under which you sit listening to,

The National, … Read more

It’s Time

Prayers for Lewiston, Maine

The morning after horror,
at lanes regularly reserved
for just-in-time fun,
the city of Lewiston
remains still,
shocked, and silent —
its streets quiet. Red maples… Read more

Honestly

 Science is being halted in its tracks.
        — Dean Schillinger

“Science is being halted in its tracks.”
The right wing’s exasperated by the truth;
being free to lie means the … 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

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

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

Compass

for Scott Joplin

NPR says MTV

was a 1981 arrival
the August moon

waxing under Leo

Rap has acquired
ragtime immunity

Born in the same
barrack, bordello

no don’t think … Read more