Eyes through chain-link mesh analyze from afar— a million amusements. From close— a hefty gate price for a wrist stamp of approval to access the

Gated fence. Steel rails with pointy tops. Too many of us kids in the backseat of our neighbor’s car. They told Polly Cleary she couldn’t

I know how much you enjoy watching the stars— how you imagine their sparkle, not the golden color, and how you’ll gnash your teeth through

In the little brownstone in East Cleveland and how we curled up in companionable conversation how he came over for chicken a la king and

Watch me transform a memory. It starts from the lining of my insides (lilac silk) And steam-engines through the grey matter of my brain – 

You didn’t know it yet But I was coming straight for you Running wild, flying blind periwinkle blue jet fuel throwing my hands up to

is small-town ugly. I catalogue as you drive:               one motel. one bar named Trapper’s.        

I once was a domestic,    laboring in others’ homes—    washing, watching.  And once,    at the park,    when the children wouldn’t listen,

When the light doesn’t listen, I trace its ghost across my skin: sunrise thinning like a paper heartbeat. No one teaches the body how to

Thoughts of you roughly grate against each bruised crimson seam that opens bloodily. Pooling globules out of my mind into a soiled, grease-stained pan lined

The camera blinked, remembering only her hands, an outlier in the dataset. He reconstructed her from shreds that fell like snow from the blackened sky,

I’m an English major, okay? So when you say okay and that’s all you say in response to my much longer email about you and

A spark of recognition ran through them as they tried to gauge what was already known. He sat watching her eyes searching the void between

They all said she was playing me like a two-dollar fiddle. But I never figured out if that was supposed to be a compliment I’ll

Seems the same as yesterday but hasn’t The sun put on earrings? Haven’t those clouds Filled their bellies? Looking at you is like Seeing the