Halloween Party – A Year After the Synagogue Shooting

a year goes quick but it’s enough of a time shift   a mind shift
to pretend we were in paradise with our friends   a steaming mug
of cider   I had a handle on     donning a black wig    forgetting
seemed the natural progression of things    no masks    no monsters
in our midst    no guns   in our field of vision    truly this was
paradise   sometimes it seems a risk every time we enter public
space   this morning I felt there were sinister forces     beyond
my control   that I couldn’t blame on hangover   it was in the gob
of spider ferns unfolding    it was in the wind     a stranger waving
to me   waiting at a crosswalk     America I only feel safe inside
my shadowed home   doors locked   curtains drawn    I felt the lips
of unspeakable tragedy drawing me in for a kiss   and I pulled my
mouth away    to run to Netflix      Mindhunter      Manhunt:
Unabomber     Dexter    so many monsters   wearing masks   this
paranoia’s a fog    lingering     never have I wanted a dog  more
just to add one layer of protection    past the window’s breaking
glass    the shards and sharp teeth   are everywhere this life   if I
knew where  to look and where I know I should

(originally published in Carpe Bloom, Winter 2019)

Tree of Life

candlelight vigil
in the gunmetal streets

sharp rain sinking
into pittsburgh’s deep roots

two blocks
from your parents’

the synagogue where
your mom taught preschool

community
congregation

drowned &
drowning

the crowd’s
gathering silence

small fires
between bodies

we canceled
the halloween party

to gather at lilly’s
for proximity

how close
to eternity

we become
in each other

(originally published in Thin Air Online, Fall 2019)

Country Music

the bleeding radio repeats the same
dead guitars their necks and bodies

another day strings stretch rained
bullets for old fingers to play half-

mast country white and blue so red
throats the shallow soundless holes

peered into to sing sand to bury
the chorus of another city’s silent

prayers God never intends to act

 

(originally published in #theslideshow, Winter 2018)

Atmosphere

What you do say is prayer don’t burn and die
when passing through the atmosphere.

Yet, somehow, meteoroids do–
though sand-sized, they have bodies

like bullets, sometimes
copper, sometimes steel.

We’re talkin’ heaven’s ammo,
a hundred tons pounding Earth each day

unnoticed. Down here, you claim
able to speak with some cosmic, faraway force

you’ve never met while keeping closed your mouth.
You claim telepathy, so this telepathic ability

how your thoughts move healing this world
of the aftermath of bodies. Tell me:

how does God respond?
And you say God,

God protects the faithful.

So, God’s His own meteorites
cratering His house, hallelujah.

 

(originally published in Ohio Edit, Winter 2018)

Martian Waters

they found water there, so we can move to Mars–
red planet god of war never knew the need for mercy.

the milky way could use another arm,
another trillion, twinkling stars, a slow phase

pregnant with planets bearing
tall pines stabbing pink skies,

white mountaintops a cold heaven.
in America, communities die one tragedy at a time.

our rivers are rancid and oxygen is halitosis.
maybe we’re dreaming, drinking

through sunrise– that’d explain our inability
to reason, expecting god to save us

from a doctrine
more widespread than bullets.

maybe we trust too much– the way
we comfort the grieving, a surplus

of prayer, words passing the breeze.
there were clumps of dead leaves before autumn began.

it’ll be beautiful, what then.
the season will kill and kill.

we’ll mourn our addiction to mercy,
wonder if it’s worth it

to bring a child into the world,
shuttled from her innocent rest

to our blood, soil fresh and familiar.
what’ll autumn do, then,

with winter afraid
to enter a landscape

already dead?

 

(originally published in The Derails Review, 2016)