The sea squirt is born with a primitive brain and one eye. It cruises the ocean, and when it finds a surface to fasten to, the squirt eats its own eye and brain. Without movement, it no longer needs them.
Corona Way
Ghost Forest
Backlit by city and refinery’s glow / these cypress bones shimmer
Polish Horeb
We waved goodbye to our fellow pilgrims as they boarded the bus bound for holy sites and, if lucky, glimpses of the pope. Peter and I walked back towards the house. All the while, eerie tendrils of cloud slid upwards, slowly releasing the village of Bienkowka.
Three Poems
When my father speaks to God he says, / the loneliness, the loneliness.
You Won’t Find Him in the Iliad
he hears a call and looks up to see / great golden wings of an eagle / oaring through the sky
Surface Tension
Water striders walk / on fluid skin, feet / faintly bending surface, / push-back propelling
Fagaceae Quercus Virginiana
When someone says broken / family they mean broken / like a promise, like a bone, / like a dish.
A Long Time Coming
O, Lady of the Masks, tell me: / how are your hands holding up / / as you gently push the pedal, control / the needle, hum a soft tune to no one
in the forest, birdsong echoes
how can I, how can I / is not what the songbird said / but something similar
Psaltery & Lyre 