Poems

A Starlit Night All over America at this hour men are standing by an open closet door, slacks slung over one arm, staring at wire hangers, […]

A Wall Map of Paris A night of drinking, dawn is coming on, my friend’s hand falls along a darkening stain that runs from Vaugirard to […]

Beauty Therefore, Their sons grow suicidally beautiful. . . -James Wright, “Autumn Begins in Martin’s Ferry, Ohio” I. We are at the Bargello in Florence, and […]

Body and Soul Half-numb, guzzling bourbon and Coke from coffee mugs, our fathers fall in love with their own stories, nuzzling the facts but mauling the […]

For Junior Gilliam (1928-1978) In the bleak, bleacherless corner of my rightfield American youth, I killed time with bubble gum and baseball cards and read the […]

Hitchcock Before the lights went out, looking back in a full house, you must have seen old faces child-like with expectancy. The strangest things can happen. […]

Late Game If this is soccer, the moon’s up for grabs. It floats low over the goalee, whose father waits downfield measuring the distance, several white […]

Motion Sickness I am tired of the heave and swell, the deep lunge in the belly, the gut’s dumb show of dance and counterdance, sway and […]

Mrs. Hill am so young that I am still in love with Battle Creek, Michigan: decoder rings, submarines powered by baking soda, whistles that only dogs […]

Old Men Playing Basketball The heavy bodies lunge, the broken language of fake and drive, glamorous jump shot slowed to a stutter. Their gestures, in love […]