What do I say to the daughter
I’m leaving underwater?
“Forgive me,
For failing to stop the flood?”
I could tell her how
numbers were valued over words
and poetry lost
ears to mouths
mixing metaphors with facts
for larger figures [Read more…]
Steel reinforcements
prop up columns
to keep the Forum from falling again
The colosseum
remains a circus
where mobs of plebeians
stab each other with selfie sticks
or throw unfortunate outsiders to lions
dressed in the uniforms of bus drivers
and tour guides [Read more…]
I feel you
working three jobs
to pay for a house and car
bankers own
I feel you
pushing shopping carts uphill
against
gravity’s
downward momentum
I feel you
reaching for a sense of solvency
that can’t be found
until you are lost in a place like Venice: [Read more…]
A woman
is standing at the bottom of an escalator
directing passengers
to departure gates
in the King’s English
She enthusiastically
repeats instructions
without
altering pitch
or tone [Read more…]
Fists unfold wings spread paper cranes offer themselves to fire’s fury
before the flame can cast light
into nuclear shadows [Read more…]
Walking on the beach in Anzio
shuffling through
the memories of my Uncle Joe:
MIA World War II
A marble slab
and empty grave
for the Kansas farm boy
ordered into the slaughter
by old men
The sins of the fathers
are paid for by sons [Read more…]
In the days of tent cities
furniture inhabits villas
Air swims in pools
cherubs cling to faux vines
while fruit spoils in orchards
[Read more…]
Pigeons on platforms
Depart with arriving trains
A feather on tracks
[Read more…]
The half note of moon
composes a sonata
on high tension lines [Read more…]
Of the three shadows
only umbra hoards all light
dispenses darkness [Read more…]
Wind inflated bag
once feared by crows is gashed
airless against gutter [Read more…]
Air is sucked from the lungs
of missing sons and fathers
exit wounds wail
air raid sirens
Fleeing echoes
collapse
on tears of olive trees
Still listening for a bird’s song
to sound the all clear [Read more…]
