Merry Christmas, Everyone! Whether or not you're a believer, I hope you enjoy your day with friends and family, build a snowman or stay inside by the fire. Here's a new poem to read while you drink something warm.   THE MANGER   For years I lived...

  consider their bodies---each separate bead a head---the string of brains arch like drumming fingers, or rather, the knuckles. survival in a smaller form. like a child pouring out onto a table, the wide mouth of an incision, a closed door. you left me open...

  You said we were a senseless pairing---the earth and moon---what if someday the earth falls out of love?   Then the moon will fall into, into---   We were waiting for a train, heads under the tunnel eve, rain pouring down, we were reaching out---...

                                   What have I learned of compassion? Unharmed, it releases itself as a seatbelt & a bottle of Coke in the morning. Baby strapped down in the...

  Out on a walk, I saw two girls screaming through a two-seater swing, two fans of blonde hair. There was a hill in the way, shoulder-high, and they were nameless, without bodies, the way birds might appear when lying in their nest. I left them against a...