Defining Winter

  It is only cat-like as it enters the cemetery, something skeletal and de-veined as it exits. We spent time removing corn husks and drove down dirt roads. Our first winter together, it was two days into the season before you told me you loved me. Four winters...

Domesticity

  My second relationship looked something like this: spun from what was left in the kitchen each night, all fish and sinnew. He had the largest hands, butcher-palms, blood under the nails, and his teeth were white scarecrows after too many fights. The salt-blue...

A Collection Poem

  First, the front door. A series of pots and pans without a permanent place. The wind, the rain. A childhood photo with a boy in an over-sized suit. Only the eyes are the same. They look at me and say I could have loved him even then. Accountability & stars....

Timetable

  When I was young, I gazed at a tree and knew if I didn’t start climbing, I’d never get another chance. My smaller body was in a red and black dress, white tights that snagged on the branches. By the time the adults took notice, my feet were above their heads,...

Reading Joan Aleshire

  TWELVE FAIRY GODMOTHERS   all came with gifts to the birth: one with laughter, one with strength, one with luck, one with love, one with grace, one with hope, one with imagination, one with insight, one with health, one with keen senses, one with will, and...