Author: admin

When the wind shifts and tears up the canyon,
I think of the Bora—that sweeps
down the Balkans. Do the gusts
make nocturnal animals nervous?

when you
step on a cactus or
touch a live wire.
It won’t kill you
the first time but …

Little skeletons
Made of glass
Of aluminum
Of metal
Litter the bank of the river.

And this blue heron sure of purpose lifts her stately head into a sky of amaranth,
spreads her wings like brushstrokes of great drama, and shimmers out of sight.

In an ancient
Japanese
legend,
a red thread is tied
to the pinkie finger
of a newborn,

“Nothing else matters,” he began,
and looked around the room.
Clearing his throat

She is a mother like any: anxious and proud,
her thoughts for her son continuous
as the beads she fingers on her
billion-years necklace.

Yes, I know the answer.
I know the answer to…
I know the answer to the kōan

The swallow’s flight longs for the emptiness
that the bend of its wings displaces.

Lips cracked, dry, sometimes bleeding
Her eyes a scornful accusation
Her once robust self an emaciated shadow of its former character

I floated in on last night’s tide
my small body tossed and twisted
until I ceased to exist in physical form