“Sometimes the dull detritus of our pasts become glaring strands once you realize they form a pattern, a lighted path to the present.”
–Carrie Brownstein, Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl: A Memoir, 2015
I See the Glory
What is my dream?I will tell you my dream: I dream I can take out my eyesScrub them hard and pop them back in,Layers of history and evolution scraped,So that finally I can seeEveryone, as their own balls of glory-- No one is shape, no one is colorNo one is sex, no one...
Imperfection
To leave a giant wholeHas been my only goal.A place for friends and loversTo gaze into,Bottomless and deep,Full of mystery as they think,“Who was he, even?” To leave my meaning everywhereHas been my single care,To gather love, to throw it outTo see what comes back,Or...
Grandparents’ Houses
Time stood still at grandpa's house.That’s why he had all the clocks—chiming and clicking to remind us time was, in fact, passing.But after a while, you didn’t notice them,just like you don’t notice you own breath,or heartbeat,until they finally fall silent.Then,...
Mind and Me
See feet as feathersFeet are feathersSee feet as stonesFeet are stones Mind is mightMind is maybeMind is powerMind is not The same as brain--Brain houses mind,And mind is moreIf you let it. Brain is matter--Axons, dendrites,Sodium-potassium pumpCreate reality But mind...
‘Lou Money
Fur moneyFarm moneyBoat moneySlave moneySell you down the river for the 'Lou money Brick moneyLead moneyIron moneyCoal moneyDig it here, burn it there, turn it all back into'Lou money Feed moneyMeat moneyBeef moneyPork moneyOpen up and eat it, it's just'Lou money...
Lessons from Leonard
Leonard taught me to write short and plain.He could say more in a four-line poem("If only we could win/(One of) these wars we like to start," ends one)Than all the free-form, stream of consciousnessPoets in the world, whose books fill the shelvesOf Target. He didn't...
Teenage Love Song
Well we sleep all night out In the parkThe lights are the brightest when it’sReally darkThen I wake up just to Look at youAnd you say hey, what youWanna do?And I say …I wanna get highWith youDo all the bad things weShouldn’t...
The Garden Inside
My baby has a garden inside That's never grown as plannedWeeds and sprouts and oddball thingsBut nothing on demand. For 30 years she kept her watchAs the garden just lay barrenEven worse came uglier thingsBorne of toil, blood, and barrow The garden blossomed only...
Relative Motions
"Alone, rising from the level of the plain, and appearing lost in the open country, the two steeples of Martinville ascended toward the sky. Soon we saw three: wheeling around boldly to position itself opposite them, the laggard steeple of Vieuxvicq had come along to...
Origins Story
I want to go home in the spring--Run the Parkway's green hills,Packed thick with Loess soil and history,Accidents of birth--Roads curling beyond themselves,The creek, the ball fields,The secret places along the way,Hidden by trees and shrubs,Into the woods, deeper,...