Swarm
Years after I left, the bees began
to build in the places I used to fill
with the syrup of my anger—
ten thousand bees performing
Bellingham Review Archives
Years after I left, the bees began
to build in the places I used to fill
with the syrup of my anger—
ten thousand bees performing
This time is sacred for the good or bad
it could become but isn’t yet. For the phone
that doesn’t ring but might.
Ma nishtana ha-laila
All the flies in the valley were buzzing at the windows, wingflits
fizzing the afternoon bright as sparkling water. As they
were our only neighbors, we climbed the loft ladder clothed
and descended it naked, proud not to have clocked our heads
Naked on the front porch, the moon unfurling its light
as though for a picnic, our yard is silver
and set for feasting.
There’s no record of the figs,
familiar in their plum-like, seedy luster.
I thought if I found the right one I could heal
my cousin’s sty. Just a hotel lobby
In every life, a moment or two, for goodness sake. “Pregnant jade rabbit enters purple heaven.”
“Every word,” wrote Beckett, “is like an unnecessary stain on silence & nothingness.” He doubled down on this
In last night’s dream, I collected my dead mother in my arms. Sky overhead, where whole weather systems bruised & healed, bruised & healed. A
Seagulls of Cardiff, small gods of the unravel,
trash-blusterers, street screechers, chimney-pot clouds
sweeping yourselves away to sky
About attribution, they were apparently
often wrong, the art curators, so they’ve made a game
called Find the Real Bosch: ten fantastical canvases
grouped on a wall: the strange and ordinary equally