Inhaling Indigo

I want to live in that interlude, after the goodnight conk -la -ree of red-winged black birds settling into the cattails, before crickets’ chirp   after birth of the nascent polliwog, before it sprouts legs to leap from the amniotic pond into the claws of a hawk  ...

tangerine moon dripslight on thinning quilt of snowcrocus sleeps beneath tangerine moon

Hemorrhage

An elegant label for the body’s betrayal, a leaky dam, a loss of containment. Today’s trickles from once healed pin pricks foreshadowed by your liver’s failure to play its role in blood clotting.   Your eyes hold nimbus clouds compressed to charcoal, no flash of fear,...

Nation needs dementia strategy

Mother and daughter spliced together attached to the same stalk. Peeling back cob leaves reveals kernel after kernel of mother’s decay, until daughter cares for an empty husk; withering in their private drought.   At her mother’s funeral, daughter dreams of...

Molluscan Memory

Aquarium existence in an office, glass walls and window panes. A parade of people tapping on an always open door. Window washers claim the best view.   Hired for radula sharpness, to rasp against browning sludge for that clean idea,   without the title I’m a slug...