Thursday, July 8, 2010

Welcome Back

I stare into the mouth of the abandoned train tunnel

and see only feathers. The old Rite Aid is now a haunted house.


The world I gave up looks at me with three dark eyes.

One of them is glass and I can’t tell which.


The ring that could have been mine flutters down to the starry

bottom of the pool. She looks nothing like me.


Her heart is a dinner table with starched napkins.

This lion I just met at dinner opened his glittering mouth


and asked me to place my head inside.

I am not afraid.

Monday, June 14, 2010

This Harp Inside of Me



bee stings get louder,

rattle their way

into the car.



heat slows the speed

of their wings.



they hover

and wait.



this world is

soft-boiled.



what’s love?

what’s love?

what turns up

in the dark?



this harp inside of me

barely sings.



I am blessed

with an instrument

that cannot wail.



he goes to kiss me

and tastes nothing

but salt.

Godbearer: five part devotion to Mary

Solemnity of Mary



you open your mouth

and a moon bursts open.


How did the sky

know you were ready?


Tell me.






Saint Gabriel




I stand at the foot of her bed,

married to a spark.


A child is a bolt

of lightning.


I could disappear,

leave a gift


that will shatter all this

in nine short months.


I know she will

burn this bed


down to a charred frame

when she hears this news.


Her hair

fans the flames.




The Annunciation of Our Lord



I would have been happy

in a life

without miracles.



The flowers darken

to shades of blood.



He never asked

if I wanted to live

without being touched.



The sun falls

on a curve

of my breast.



I miss everything

I’ve ever missed.







Marian Apparition



I see Mary

in my cup of tea.


Golden roses

leap out of her eyes.



Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Moonscape

There are coal mines burning

beneath my feet. From across the field,


the mine shaft is a pool to drown in.

Love is a firecracker thrown on my lawn.


You wheeze with sinkhole lungs. You taste

like you’ve been chewing matches.


Unbutton your blouse and show me

what smolders underneath. Steam rises


from the grass. All I dream about are charred

bedframes, canaries with iron lungs. You


could engulf me. This is the moment

where it may or may not get out of control.


I am destroyed by the idea of fire

licking my bones clean like snow.