Poetry

Surviving You

I don’t know how I did it, / loved you all those years in the quiet landscape / of a burning vineyard, of a toppling mountain…

Arlo

Late June fields greening
under a mottled sky.
An oriole slashes orange
against a shingled Cape Cod.

The Shed

Each time something went missing—
the photo album of my first
year, postcard from a forgotten friend…

Price Tag

Late June fields greening
under a mottled sky.
An oriole slashes orange
against a shingled Cape Cod.

O To Be a Semiautomatic Weapon

Late June fields greening
under a mottled sky.
An oriole slashes orange
against a shingled Cape Cod.

After the Loss of My Daughter to Suicide

Late June fields greening
under a mottled sky.
An oriole slashes orange
against a shingled Cape Cod.

After Another School Shooting, I Drive the Back Roads of New Hampshire

Late June fields greening
under a mottled sky.
An oriole slashes orange
against a shingled Cape Cod.

Dear Shooter,

Bloodstains left / on the sidewalk / Body bags, / Yellow tape, / Why don’t you think about the consequences / You’re going to have to face?

Uremia

The smell is like nothing else. / Sickeningly sweet and kind of smoky, / like something burning and rotting at the same time, / it filled my father’s hospital room / and stuck to our clothes and nostrils / long after he died.