Poetry

The Old Man Washes His Boat, Ballycotton

The old man/
plies his trade, his wages earned: a clean boat./
Is labor prayer? 

In the Briars

As I walked to Lake Divine, I remembered I’d forgotten/
To fill my pockets with rocks. I’m the type who forgets

The Initiation

Boy, he said, you got to fill a graveyard/
before you know this business

Oystered

Would that our breasts were like oysters/
Briny, lustrous. Maybe not filter feeders,

A THREAD OF SUNLIGHT ON EURYDICE’S HEM

Call it an exercise in restraint/
The angle of ascent is sharp/
Like the sloped ceiling 

Chronic Care: “Broken Leg” by Keith Carter, Photograph (Toned Gelatin Silver Print 1998)

The girl in black dress and tights stands behind the fawn,/
hands clasped, their white blur forming almost/
a heart.

Learning New Words

one of the benefits of the disease –/
you learn new words. You/
also learn new meanings for/
old words.

Particle

like light is/
like my speckled skin: brim/
and brink. verge.

if i die at thirty five

there will be/
no burial burn/
the body cancer/
cratered