Fighting for AirI know Despair and she knows me.         We first met as I worked, in Hope, as the ground became harder and my tools became...

Chloe’s PantoumThe summer we carried the puppies up the garden.Four cousins, each with their own damp handfulof fur, paw tongue. The animal smell.We knelt in the grass to make them beds.Four...

A Plea to Saint WilgefortisAs you know, the hair on my face is dark,it downs my cheek, forests my upper lip, my jaw. As you must surely know, I tried creams, they fetched a rash and the hair sprang...

The Fond Farewell.The hour marches on defiantly,like a small child, stamping.She shows me into herparlour.  What a time beaten name for a room.The air is thick with emptiness. I have to swim my...

Alone One day I had the seaupon my heart.Like a cold tongue,on my heartthe sea. And I was far from you, my mother.And you were far from me,sailing on a bannerless wind. There were no roots...

Eyeball Prayer Thank you, Lord, for my marvelous eyes;blue orbs that never witness sleeves creepingfrom laundry baskets, or see windows smudgedby kitty noses. Eyes, that transform pilesof books...

ConstellationsWhen I dream of escape, I see a pathfrom country to countryfrom woman to womanlike those lines which make starsbecome ploughs or hunters;when I dream of this routethat draws itselfit...

Terror in the Death CampShe was eighteen, and still a young eighteen, even for 1970. Here in the death camp for the first time. In the terrifying lounge. The room next to the guards'...

DESERT BED     The alkaline white histories are as permanent as anyone gets, bone pure, salt cured, and the bike rides like a hot spider on the back of a burning deck, and all the sea is...

The Invisible Fuguer         It wasn’t meant to be           ...