Childe Hassam, April Showers, Champs Elysees, Paris, 1888 Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC She is caught momentarily transfixed, her hurried errand abruptly paused at the sight of a flock of men in the rain. The horse-drawn carriage is dark bedecked with a bristling cluster of black umbrellas, a melancholy parade for a soul unknown. There […]
November 6, 2006
12:43 pm
The ravenous friend of Carson Bell Ate what he ate, and he ate very well. He rolled into town at a quarter to four, And by six-twenty, our town was no more. There was no early warning of the size of his lunch, He said not a thing, just started to munch, Knelt down his […]
All of this is food for ghosts – but then, the care and feeding of phantoms isn’t hard. Everything loved that passes plants a seed, so that future echoes serve to nurture, every time the bus passes that restaurant, every elevator that plays that particular song. In truth, ghosts are roaches, nigh impossible to exterminate […]
Just a quick note here to point out that I just added an MP3 of me reading one of my recent poems, Bilbao, in anticipation of future possible podcasts. That is all.
When he first heard the news on the radio he couldn’t believe it — so he switched on the television, since visuals were harder to fake than words. When he saw it on CNN he still didn’t buy it, so he enlisted in the service to see for himself. He went through the training, received […]
She tries to tell him it’s a good thing, tries to make him smile, but all he hears is her desire to leave and he stares at his hands on the table. She tries to promise she’ll be back but the words stick in her throat because who is she to say such things when […]
The taste of sawdust is heavy in the air, mixed with sweat, grease and oil. The polishing rag sits abandoned where it fell smack in the middle of the half-gleaming hood of the 1939 cherry red Ford de Soto cut and chopped and remixed into the precide hot rod that the coolest kid in school […]
When she came home she couldn’t find it, When he left home he couldn’t stand it, When she tried to make a home she failed Because he wouldn’t have any of it. Some of us are homemakers, Some of us are homewreckers, Some of us carry our homes with us Like so many turtles, or […]
The graffiti on the overpass on the edge of town is letter-for-letter the same as its sister located on the other side of the world and linked by some arcane tag magic known only to the artists of gates, doors and liminal spaces.
They found him leaning against the bridge, staring at the sky and mouthing words, his eyes flicking back and forth as if he were watching the gods play tennis. They swore he was a prophet, they spread his legend far and wide and across the country millions followed suit, beating wide paths to the nearest […]
