POST-MAGIC
you are real
i hold onto this
even though
nothing else was
i hide in a room
full of plants
for what else shall i do?
the other rooms
were dreams
you pass by me
and it feels like passing through
what am i? please
don't say ghost
i still have to live with this
the waking up
and you did cross that room
and now again
for someone else
how i wish i could go back
but then i realize---
to what? you met my eye
more than once---
how far was that?
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POST-MAGIC
you are real
i hold onto this
even though
nothing else was
i hide in a room
full of plants
for what else shall i do?
the other rooms
were dreams
you pass by me
and it feels like passing through
what am i? please
don't say ghost
i still have to live with this
the waking up
and you did cross that room
and now again
for someone else
how i wish i could go back
but then i realize---
to what? you met my eye
more than once---
how far was that?
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The pond with the ducks, the tennis court, the dog park, the tree with berries and birds
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PHYSICAL THERAPY
i.
the calamity happened
there's no denying
the whole ugliness of it
penned in my spine
ii.
what's there to do
when the pain follows you everywhere?
one must turn to magic
maybe cry a little
iii.
i was taught witching movements
i learned to channel my fervor
my feverish and failing clairvoyant
behaviors ceased
iv.
yes, i killed the clairvoyancy.
my future thus became
a complete mystery
(perhaps not tied
to misery)
v.
it was covered by insurance
vi.
life
is still not the same
my spine
still recalls the calamity
but i don't cry
and i have seen another side of all this
and of myself
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LAGOMORPH
strong legs
made for?
keeping
the fantasy
silent
before we met
someone showed me
you in a picture
they said
you were coming
imminently
imminently
like a rabbit in a field
i fled
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ALMOND MILK
your mild allergy
came to mind this warm morning.
i broke down in tears.
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WHAT LIFE WAS LIKE
"a purer time"
yet, like a cracked egg,
unfixable
remember us
skating in the streets
with you holding my hand
saying you could throw me
off balance anytime you wanted?
one mighty jerk
could end things
or make something else begin
back then
no one had words for this
one just lived with it
flashing a precarious smile
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My dream came true but then I woke up from it
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MOTHER'S FOOTSTEPS
like her i can break
my soul and inhabit
different spaces
certain stretches of road,
particular convenience stores
can make you think of me
a house? definitely
and you won't drive past
that tree-lined street again
my mother has taught me
how to haunt
before i've even died
isn't it funny
going through your phone and feeling
a sense of loss
you loved that coffee shop
i grew up in that house
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OYSTER MUSHROOM
o faeries bouncing on spongy steps!
o dryads scampering tree to dying tree
donning capes of pine green and murk!
o families that stayed to weather
that chemical plant disaster, the
Sagittarius, the slopping government
effort to declare a superfund site!
o deer!
o mutated beings and unchanged, nematodes
i prey on---
come! the kingdom
of fungi exerts its dominion
amidst this emergency
collect my shelves into your baskets,
ye people, come feed
on the feeder and filterer!
and watch in awe as i cleanse this earth
for a disaster comes
for the disaster,
we fungi fluourish
the might of mycelia
(and other such organs and weaponry)
the glowing child in the forest
was your biggest failure
but we have come to save you all!
happily and hungrily
and oh so quietly
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GLAM
Saints and witches are reborn in fire;
ugly boys are killed and re-created
on operating tables. That's
glam!
I've betrayed my bloodline
for glam. This face doesn't exist
anywhere in the genetic code.
It's nice to look at, but confusing
if you were used to the old one.
That's glam!
My plastic surgeon's office
is rife with magic. In Boston
I turn heads in a good way.
No one asks my fiance
why he didn't do better
because now there is no need.
Due to? Glam!
I look upon the cape with my new face
thinking the old one could never see
this view from this house. The dogs
I might never have look so pretty
in the morning light, their furs
elegantly illuminated. Also glam!
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ROAD SIGN
you had favorites
DUCK
🦆
X-ING
SPEED
LIMIT
55
DEAD
END
why do i remember these things?
because i love you
you disappeared
with no explanation
and when this happens
one feels compelled to maintain
an archive
the news crews swarmed your house
they asked all sorts of questions
about what you were like
you played varsity football, the record
shows you were quite good
and this is how most people will remember you
paling in significance is your record of driving
exactly or under the speed limit,
stopping for ducks, getting lost
on purpose to make the drive
to my house longer
no one knew about us
so know one knows i know this
also
no one understands why, all of a sudden,
i'm in no hurry to get to school, or get home
they think i've gotten more patient
because no one drives exactly 55 miles per hour
for more than three seconds
whereas i
want to stay in that speed a moment
keep at it steady
slow down and stop just for the ducks
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"SAFE" PLACE
we'd been watching the news, a mother
made headlines for doing some pretty awful things
and spoke in a courtroom
she said something
that changed
the air in our house:
"the end of our marriage
is a tragedy"
what disaster
could compare to this
uttered aloud, as if
transcribing our thoughts?
our dogs and children slept soundly
so did the neighbors
and the birds in the trees
quick! tell me all you remember
starting from the time you saw
my jacket slung over a chair
this was something,
wasn't it?
this was love
and supposed to work
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ADULT REVENGE
a child would burn
the criminal
a searing erasure
i want it all
over the papers
a cautionary tale
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VIVISECTION
you are despicable
in another time the bodies of men like you
would be donated to science
we would need an explanation
do stalkers have an extra organ
that compels this behavior
in another time
i was on an operating table
for extensive plastic surgery
so i could kill the person you were following
that's how it feels being watched, scrutinized
from afar
it makes you want to kill
and it makes you think of another time
where science is just beginning
there are doctors in a room
and onlookers in a circle beyond
people are saying
dig deeper
find something
it's all very impersonal, the cutting
up of men like you
one almost forgets that life was in there
---but it was, and while alive
it tended to forget, too
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APRIL 2024 ECLIPSE POEMS
"what it was like"
looking outside
felt like closed eyes
tearily opening
☾
"solar eclipse"
THE GREAT BIG SKY
ITS GREAT SLOW BLINK
☾
"dog in the dimness"
i would follow, wait,
follow, keep pace, slow,
stop
i would do anything for you
as confusing as this darkness is
you told me
about this rare event
that changed all the birds for a minute
i looked through your dark glasses
and saw the orange sickle
what does it all mean?
oh, it's bright again!
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POTHOLES
i turned to drive over
the same pothole
to see you again
context: you're leaving
neither of us has said anything
so i write this poem to cope
sad
we keep running into each other
our cars parked side by side
soldier-like
no one is talking about us now,
they're just seeing, watching
the amoeba of us slowly split
i used to have dreams about you
i would write them down as if
you were trying to communicate
things you'd never say in person
i still dream now
without all the writing
i'm scared of the future
i would drive over so many potholes
to stitch the amoeba back together
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