The first place I looked was where the spring rounded the grove of oaks and began to widen into a creek shadowed by sycamores. The moss grew thick on the bare spots of earth where the sun only reached in winter speckles between branches. It spread across the rocks—outcropped on the edges of the creek and sunk into the bank sloping up to a path the deer and raccoon spent their lives making. Continue reading “Arrival”
Tag: life
After October Rain
You lie on the naked bed, the sheets
Finishing the spin cycle, the trailer walls
Shuddering slightly with the motion.
One cat is at your feet, the others
Line the rooms like Egyptian statues
On guard for a dropped piece of cheese. Continue reading “After October Rain”
Down the Road
Is this a dream or not, I’ll say
Sitting in the dark
With a magazine in my hand
And the harmonica on the floor
By my socks
The war outside continues
Constant crashing, breaking
The drip, drip of the melting icicles
As they fall softly to the ground
To the snow
Put on your boots and go outside
Crash Continue reading “Down the Road”
Name This Poem
Molly tells me you can read
Your fortune in the bathtub:
Run out, count the stars, then
Lock yourself in the bathroom, turn
Off the lights, and you’ll see
Your grave in the bathtub—I did.
But she must be lying.
Oh what I wouldn’t give
For a nickel and a dime
And a cherry with a seed
Inside to crack my teeth upon.
I’m going home, home,
On my way home. Continue reading “Name This Poem”
Me and Ken and Two Animals
1.
The frog at night
Is not alarmed to be spotlighted
Or at least does not scamper
But merely poses
For the shot Ken takes,
The first of a series
That highlights the frog Continue reading “Me and Ken and Two Animals”
Crestview Trailer Park, Stillwater OK, 1981
And what I remember
is the traffic of trucks,
the smell of chlorine sharp
as overripe melons
busted open in dead grass
late summer,
the heat of the west-facing metal door
in the afternoon Continue reading “Crestview Trailer Park, Stillwater OK, 1981”
Rural Oklahoma Museum of Poetry 