by McKenzie | Aug 22, 2014 | Blog, My Poems
We’re too damaged to go back now, left a little too far open, lost moons, the open box-cutters with a blade that shines like glass against your hair, your eyes, the feeling of blade to skin. Watching you, this is how a river feels— too cool, too fast, a...
by McKenzie | Aug 22, 2014 | Blog, Literary Scene
In the two years I have lived in the Kalamazoo area, while attending Western Michigan University’s MFA program in Poetry, I have been impressed with the level of involvement that is available in the arts—from poetry and fiction readings, to playwriting...
by McKenzie | Aug 21, 2014 | Blog, My Poems, My Writing Challenges
I have asked my husband, What do you think she will look like? He frowns, and I know there is no answer. Not right now. All I know is beauty: crows bursting from a field, a candle flame, a gust of wind after rainfall. These things are beautiful, imprinted...
by McKenzie | Aug 21, 2014 | Blog, My Poems, My Writing Challenges
The act is violent, the tearing open, the skin. I imagine bird claws, the talons, a wind breaking open between two buildings. The mouth, agape. And the arrival. Two shadows. August 20, 2014, MLT ...
by McKenzie | Aug 21, 2014 | Blog, My Poems, My Writing Challenges
And then I look to the fall trees, and I wonder if they ever think, “I am running out of leaves.” They probably do, they with their tall, scarred bodies, launching outward and up. Sometimes, they are probably dreaming, or worse, waking. They open their eyes to...
by McKenzie | Aug 21, 2014 | Blog, My Poems, My Writing Challenges
Crab is such an ugly word—the hard k, its suddenness. I’m steeped in these small pools, or perched on the surrounding rocks and sand, one hole after the next, searching for shore crabs, carcinus maenas. I find their gray and tan bodies, slick with the...