I have been that guy
sitting in his car on a dark
street headlights off in
the company of siren
cicadas during a festival
down the street its residents
wanting sleep I have been
that hungry that listless
that finished within porch
light of someone else’s home
while people who look
like your past
walk on by
(originally published in The Kolkata Arts Blog, Summer 2024)
Michael says actors are delusional–
the ones who star in poorly-scripted
films, over and over. How can they
live as soft-boiled eggs? I want to believe
in excellence, too. That love of craft–
steering ships– can navigate
to where one needs to go,
even when relentlessly punched
in the ring.
I, too, am weak, having
said the words of Winkler
for free
just to get on screen.
And the cost was
stock-video explosions
that were copyright
violations.
But to live a dream
(and dream
I do)
one must wake up
and say the words
to anyone who listens.
(originally published in Rind: An Online Literary Magazine, Summer 2024)
This could be the last weekend
before certain uncertainty.
Yes, I am a secret pessimist.
This year has been good
for that. I lost my line
of work due to pandemic,
but started a new one
born from it. When you
were crying from your
campaign job, worried
your boss might not
let you go to your
needed appointment
on Thursday, I told
you what you’re
crying about isn’t
your Thursday
appointment.
We’re afraid
of what we
may be living
in on Wednesday.
(originally published in Setu, Fall 2024)
My heart– a poem, a bass line audible
in Cleveland. You’re in the Heights now,
further away than ever, but it’s fine. I left
you first & felt a sapphire tinge in every
step. How always we wrapped
our bodies in caution tape
tangled in each other anyway.
I couldn’t drive a straight line,
couldn’t speak without stumbling
into potholes leapfrogging the walk
to your apartment on North High.
Inside, your dog was on a leash,
wagging his tail at a ghost
he could not know.
(originally published in Poetry Salzburg Review, Summer 2023)
When I can’t sleep– after
lifetimes pass me by
(embers of 16-bit reflections.
Silken stars, the spider
lights that moved between)
you refuse the lake
when the lake refused
you, but I find a stack
of outdoor towels,
and I can’t stop
using the phrase.
Can’t start a fire
without seeds blowing
over tall weeds into
mouths of rubber
band bullfrogs (among
ones with sounds a larynx
can’t replicate).
Tomorrow calls for
rain. No one said
you couldn’t leave
the pond until the
bugs did what they
do best: bug you
enough to drag you
out of the water,
your feet enough
in the grass
to walk tonight.
(originally published in Piker Press, Fall 2024)
Maybe the installation was overrated–
the advertisements got us, inflated
the necessity of PVC in the center
of the city. It is August and I wanted
to see you for who you were and you
let me. Our shoes were off and
in the green shining light we were
vibrant. In the red we could not tell
each other apart from the screaming
strangers’ children, as indistinct
as silhouettes, palettes upon which
we draw the lines we see ahead; the vents
streaming air; the eighteen rooms we lost
ourselves in but not the sense of time,
which was kind of the point:
already we are labyrinths
so why pay to see
ourselves out? Not that we could
even. Had to find a blue GUIDE to point
us slightly in the direction of exodus,
another tube to lead us into the open
patio with the mobile bar selling
orange crush and cucumber vodka
with twenty other people seeking
air, or at least a chair
to sit, in which I am
wondering how close to sit
beside you? The answer
in the atoms wobbling between
us, the slight tilting of light.
(originally published in The Seraphic Review, Fall 2023)
Columbus.
Victorian Village.
Coming home.
A dog sometimes.
Desire.
Living.
The squeeze.
Without thinking.
The act.
The thinness of good.
How much regret.
At a party I said it.
Stung.
What?
The direction of history.
A rough shore.
To never return.
(originally published in JAKE., Summer 2024)
I arrived a grown child, thinking
this the place where everyone was
a star or– at least– a surfer.
I am neither. Every year
I look back and say my god! I’ve stayed
the same. For example: four billion years ago
I was a molecule in primordial soup,
spinning and swirling. Four billion years later,
I am a clerk at a convenience store, stocking lube and smiling.
Now? I am on the couch watching BoJack Horseman,
eating canned tuna and wondering if I am him.
Or– wait. I am in my car, stuck in traffic, honking
at a red light. Hell, I am driving a lemon,
barefoot in smog. This may be
a dream, but I feel cheated these days,
even if the sun shines– and it does– too brightly.
(originally published in Sunhous Review, Fall 2024)
Seconds
pass. Butterflies wing,
a note floats spring
sprawled across,
cursive,
swarming
into new jazz
harmony to
-gether in the
flying lease
of body.
(originally published in Ink Pantry, Summer 2025)
You didn’t take me seriously
when I said I was qualified.
It’s okay. Money grows
on certain trees, and people
like you pluck them leaf-
less. I want to hold the roots
in my hands, my long and
hardened hands. I want to make
a phone call on your behalf.
I wish I had a trust
fund. Someone I trust
to grow within me.
A seed that sees
how dark the world
becomes without
the light to grow,
planted anyway.
(originally published in Poetry Pacific, Spring 2025)