A wisp of a girl, about four, in a blue dress, edges down a spiral coil in the children’s play area at Lake Temescal. Her

Standing next to you on your stage of sand, with the wind warming my skin and the moon heating my thoughts, I didn’t understand how

and in love, i think climbing over each other laughing you push me down and we’re struggling against the current but it’s fun and salty

I know that the poplar beneath your window is shooting young leaves and that the magnolias and tulips across the road are in blossom yet

I am dreaming again, of a lover drawing his fingertip along the bridge of my nose, following that secret line dividing my lips in four

Behind those two oil lamps for evening prayer, Lit in the names of your husband and son, Keep one for this bleak man whose calm

There are times in the morning or late in the eveningWhen skin feels as smooth as the edge of a cloudFinger tips tracing like braille

Let me brush my lipsgentle over the base of your throat,turn my tongue at your collarand caress your cheekwith the fingertips of my desire Let me

It’s early December.A vicious wind rattles walls and windows,with enough venom left over to desecrate every human bodyfool enough to be out in it. I’m on her

I wrapped some clothes and my favorite toysin a bath towel and walked straight forward.I didn’t get far when my older brother caught meand cautioned,

A body washes ashore.A body is washedso entirelythat the lighthouseis replaced by the bodythat has been thrownthrough centuriesof rock & faith& small tragedyto become affixedas

I remember feeling a cigarette burning a hole in my arm after too many beersor not enough whiskey. Tried to shut down Magdalena, called her God’s own

You were perennial, alpine aster, century plant, bee balm for many years. How constant whispers can be, how clear.                

I read love poems at breakfast and wept For emotion expended and contained While in the basement you ran on the treadmill And I knew

It started off as a game. Strip chess. He was naked, she was left with only bra. Not content when the game ended, she slid