Gloomiferous Pooms

Joy arrived with fear, in word if not deed, a nicety providing entry into other ideas: what does it mean to drown? Breathlessness came...

Neither tree nor forest, he says, so we cut the wood down, lay logs into neat corners, sturdy walls, a roof to keep the rain out. Tall...

Reverence doesn't need a cathedral, just breath & intention & charcoal signature smudged at hip, a chorus of two ecstatic voices, a...

What I remember of the Cathedral: a towerful of steps before I had my own; dress and satchel shed beneath the bell; how freedom &...

I remember when the tides were reliable, the days when I'd sit opposite and watch how they'd rise and recede, how they'd come back in...

Flowers stand out beneath fingertips, threadbare petals snagged & stripped, component strings rendered distinct-- How long has it been...

A knife which knows its own name acts in accordance with its nature & will turn on its wielder in time. A stubborn seed taken root,...

To the shadow, whispering seems a weighty task: what words will set the world to changing? To the flame, witnessing proves difficult:...

i. Galas and garden parties, but never masquerades. Anonymity obscures identity, self absent by half, and I must know you, by sight, by...

Differences present themselves first: how the mug is held in the wrong hand or at the wrong time of day, evenings meant for endings, a...

Cut here, the first instruction, an incision below the collarbone, at the edge of his favorite dress, red, darkened by descent. For you,...

A song of eroded notes. A featherlight thread. A pillar to hold up the wall. Eyes which only saw emptiness. Ties by which I was bound....

You are an emptiness, an absence, the silence where song used to be, morning light with no shadow cast, diminished by years, by distance....

They will call it chaos, but it's possibility, a world of willingness without inhibitions, of wishes without limits. They will keep to...

Our cathedral has seven screens in seven theaters, seven vices in stained-glass colors, seven virtues in gold-framed cases, and seven...

I've never stolen a heart. They've all been freely given. It may feel like theft at the start, but I've never stolen a heart. Though it...

The allotment is modest, but it's yours if you'll have it: a dozen square yards of grass blanketed in blue and white, asphalt to one side...

pulling at my navel unravels my stomach spilled guts shoved your direction recklessly tucked back in me quickly enough, but left behind a...

Afternoons spent watching clocks and windows, Waiting until you return from dreams, Return from wherever you disappear to When you sleep...

A hammer strikes a nail the wood, replete with presence the last before many likewise efforts for a wardrobe that longed to be complete...