Poetry
The Interview
I shuffe past the school’sfortified metal. Guards frisk me as I approach, ask me to leavemy name, phone number, time of day; why I’m here in a book.I think default procedure. Maybe, I’m heartenedby their arm’s gesture, how not one pats me down;says, this way, madam. Maybe this is the way a mind deadensto what …
Dad 3
Stories my dad told me, but I could never figure outwhich ones. All mixed up for a kid like me, wide-eyed, sleepy head.Some Southern dialect from Puglia mostly;a rugged countrysidedotted with confino ghosts,scarred memories,reporting each morning il posto di polizia,and then the day was yours basking in the sunof your morning …
Ode to the Penis
Someone told me that what I writeabout men is objectifying. So I ask you,O general idea of the penis, do you mindbeing noticed? You who stand, in the mind—erect and not, old and young—for all your representations, O abstractprinciple, haven’t you maybe beenwaiting for your turn to be sung? I thinkyou’re lovely and brave, and …
Lucky
I meant no disrespect to my body.Sleepless, I made my way to the outdoor showerhard rosebuds of insect bites rising. VitaminB, lavender oil, tea tree oil, Benadryl, nothing helped& nothing made me less of a feast to the predawnmosquitoes & fleas. Long ago I held a mesh bagseething w/ ladybugs, my first sense of wealth,all …
High School Yoga
Miss, can you play this song today in yoga class? I’ve been thinking about the story you told us last weekand the question you asked . . . If we are Krishna, Arjuna and everything what does it matter? I couldn’t go to Five Points for the quinceañera not that she was a close friend …
Dennis
Death has always had a prominent place in my mind. . . . I’ve come close at least fifty times.Dennis Rodman All we want is to never die, but God loves mostthe man who offers what he cherishes. In ‘93 they found you asleep in your carwith a loaded rifle in your lap. You said …
Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman’s Daughter Got Her Period on TV
and thought she was dying. I was in Algebra–-my period an axiomnot on cable–-shamed by the red flame on rags betweenmy legs. I got mine the week before baseball tryouts,thought I was sick with dark slick shit, not eggs. Dr. Quinn on TV and me, shamed by the red-ragged flame. Betweenmy math-mad, baseball-coaching dad asking, …
Boxing Out
I never had hops, so I got on at Bertha Ross Park the same wayI kept my spot on the middle school squad: immaculatelyfree-throwing with follow through, flicked wrist left hanging for the imaginary game winner when winner meant fly girlfriendinstead of sulking solo in the gym corner like I was backat the Spring Formal …
last summer of innocence
there was Noella who knew I was sweetbut cared enough to bother with me that summer when nobody diedexcept for boys from other schools but not us, for which our motherslifted his holy name & even let us skip some Sundays to go to the parkor be where we had no business being talking to …