September 27, 2017
June 15, 2017
I FORECAST YOUR ELEGY
with a first line from Herman Melville
Others praise the soft eye
of the antelope, but the miracle
of your body is more worthy.
I follow the line of your hip, linger
where it tapers into thigh, the flesh
knit over fiber and filament beneath.
I hear the cr...
June 12, 2017
By Bob Sykora and Brooke Schifano
In 1973, Gail Mazur founded the Blacksmith House Poetry Series in Cambridge, MA. For forty-four years, the reading series has been a vital part of Boston’s poetry scene, hosting both established and emerging writers. This past spring th...
June 12, 2017
We cherished that house, though we only ever knew it at night. Mother had a company, spent her days sniffling and pointing at screens, and Nadine and I were middle-school students, strung along in the world of cotillion and sport. We spent long days striving to accumul...
June 11, 2017
Inside the Foxhole
My features are small,
expressionless. My lovers say
I look like a doll. Today
I climbed into a black dollhouse
& felt more at home than anywhere
I’ve ever been. The wild in me
stopped howling, stopped pulsing
through my legs. Egyptians used mirrors
to reflec...
June 11, 2017
WILL THE LAUNDRY BE DONE THIS SPRING?
and the socks will dry.
the crows will leave
their slippers on the soil.
i will peel a tulip
into a stick;
the fog will go.
no. you are handing me
a dress. my palm reaches
for its wrinkles. it is a sun,
stretching the leaves
of a sullen oak. ...
June 11, 2017
Aubade, Belated
The small girl of you you admitted to once you admitted to your being
loud when you talked of cats in love & cats out of love
I couldn’t love a man
No one ever...
June 11, 2017
Statement from No One, Incorporated
“what is it when a death is ruled a homicide but no one is responsible for it”
— Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib
We are not responsible. We have not
the capacity to respond, cannot take
your call, are not obliged. We promise
nothing in return...
June 11, 2017
TO AMICHAI
After the explosion on West 23rd,
I thought of you kissing a lover
on a soon destroyed bridge. Then of me,
the day before with a man
I thought I could love. How can I
do laundry now? If I fold the corners
of each t-shirt or roll the socks into a perfect sphere,
can...
June 11, 2017
ELEGY FOR THE LONG DRIVE
When pops aired his words over space
to tell me grandma had a heart attack
I couldn’t hear the quiver in his voice.
I had just bought coffee in Queens
for a dollar & the steam of it when held
close to me made the inside of my nose
sweat. You are someo...