Valentine for Certain Women

(an excerpt, originally for Susan)

The heart of friendship is a sturdy daisy and nub of grape

still clinging to fence. Driving coast to coast without

ever leaving our chairs. A collage of significant photos.

You first cut my daughter’s hair.

Our families are each tattooed with grief. A bouquet

of friends on the ever cluttered table. Passive aggressive.

Taken over. A visit when least expected. My nickname

spoken with your voice.

We move into new homes, counters stacked with mail.

Trees in need of water. Winter and spring. Our friendship,

a rolling cart on wheels. Recall of playing piano two by two

on a bench as a girl.

As if you were always there. Looking for knives and spoons

in my mother's drawers. Vinyl on the turn table. Sitting down to sigh.

Comments

Vessel

Inside I imagine puckered cups of butter cookies nested in paper that releases a sigh But instead there may be fiction within wishes never reciprocated Playbill of redundant arguments One black glove found fraying This vessel on an emptied table solo temptation is labeled with another’s name Guarded initials as if carved in melting snow A tool unsuited to the task of prying open Not yet valentine

Shameless Early Promotion

My poetry book, The Fiction of Stillness, is available for pre-order now on Barnes and Noble. Official release date August 1st, 2024. Here's a taste: ... The table is smooth and round symmetric The chairs are haphazardly placed at the end of this day I have breast cancer I say into the receiver [communities must] pool resources How to produce the sounds of the imaging report into sentences that resonate with months of postponement weighty contrast on my right side computing and comparing IM ratios for greater insight not sufficient to prove the efficacy of screening ...

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S acred stones roll around on the floor of my car, carried in over years of scavenging. Pocketed. Parceled. Placed on dashboard or grave. Markers of present coloring past. The sun bathes the windshield just so and the secret messages written in mud or snow show themselves for the innocent blessing that they are. I walk into this side street café with my bruised heart in a purple and black satchel and am greeted by a circle of banjo players and one free seat against the window. Chairs like we inhabited in elementary school when things were still made of wood, grafted together at the corners with metal, corners rounded and smooth. We kept our notes in desks and lockers, wrote whispers of names we adored on the plain brown wrappers around our math books. Took broken bits and mending tape, carted cassette songs of guitar players who have since died or changed their names. Like mantras, directions to the river canyon where we could picture the rough rope as magical swi...

As Mourning Doves Persist

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