Love Often Bares its Teeth I am waiting for the number 44 bus, it is raining and my bag is full of books I have become less than keen to read; they weigh me down, prod and bump as if I...

      Welcome, Stranger The half dozen gray geese in our town's central pond used to strut out on the road to attack trucks. Grills, tires. Pecking. If you honked a car horn at them,...

      The Wedding Picture ‘Oh, I do, I do! It fits me fine but… I can’t afford it, I’m afraid. Another time.’ Yiota told the village peddler, Mr. Giorgos, on the phone, letting out a...

      Remorse Struck by an ice-cream vendor at age nineteen! What a bumptious little prick I must have been to order a cone and then refuse to pay on grounds of cost, and in a...

      Leavening Forgiveness like leavening bread In the dark heart of summer. Like following the way down To where the columbine eats A bed of roses. Water knows this work: Slow...

  Deleting Footnotes You can never prepare for this task. It demands no passion in the wrecking, just obliterating all signals of existence throughout your dead parents' house. Discovering now...

      Kennel A long night wrestling in the narrow bed, constrained and willing under the snuffed-out bulb. Breeze-block wall, tin sink, a locked door to the neon lit unshadowed...

      A Potion to Leave the Past Behind   Take yoga breaths, pins, pressure points camomile, beta-blockers, diazepam fill the void with Jesus, Mars Bars and vodka fill it with...

        breathless graffiti shouts insults from walls by the chemist its colours explode like flung bottles I stare at the pavement and I’m late for the 8:22 to Manchester...