PQ Poem

Vanishing Point

Vanishing Point Wind kicks sand, a mist of saltwater layers my skin.I am on Hatteras island, the Atlantic on one side, Pamlico sound on the other. My feet unsteady as waves roll in, shift ground beneath me.I walk and walk, stop to gather a few intact shells, ocher and cream, maroon and gray,what were once …

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Our Ark  

Our Ark   If it’s the spruce it must be the mourning doves, the willow— the two blue birds the arborvitaes—robins If it’s the shagbark hickory the red-headed woodpecker If it’s the red oak at the far end of the trail the magnificent male pheasant If it’s the underbrush at the inflow-end of the pond the …

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Four Shorts

Four Shorts 1.organic green(for Pat who died too young)when you come back you will leada flock of mallards through novice blueno more brown speckled plumagecourting distorted imagesin stagnant pond water your glossy bottle-green head will burnthe wind jealous-amber as alwaysyour wild feathers so fowllight will follow you 2.Construction Worker(about an eighth grade girl) She could …

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To My Young Self

To My Young Self you took up  nearly  no space  so quiet  you were   never heard   or seen    see here   in the front yard      among the mini Japanese maple tree   the Oregon  grape bush    the stained-brown      fence  beyond    you were a piece  of beauty bark   merely ground  …

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The Sea Lion Who Saved The Boy Who Jumped From the Golden Gate

The Sea Lion Who Saved The Boy Who Jumped From the Golden Gate 1.All my slippery-slick dark life,whether at sea with a raftof sisters and brothers,or on rockssprawled in a colony,I’ve loved the water.Sometimesin the depthsI’ll sleep,then waketo breakthrough water’s skinto look at stars —swallowing them with my eyes.I’ve loved tunnelingtwistingturningcelebratingthe impossible freedomof having no …

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The Factory

The FactoryI start my shift as jars and bottles marchin perfect ranks and files from the oven,glass soldiers of an army on parade.An electric selector inspects theirwarm bodies for weakness; those that don’t passmuster must be mustered out—returned tothe furnace to be melted and recast.Maybe on their next try they can run theobstacle course. Those …

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Morning Yoga

Morning Yoga The yoga ladies gather at daybreak,drag plastic chairs over cracked earthinto straggling rows. Bright greetings and murmured joysflit lightly through the clustered groups,conspire against the teacher’s drone: “Bring silence to your Practice,breathe deeply—inhale, sustain, and exhale—listen to the sacred sound of Ommm. . .” But the yoga ladies gather to gossip,exchange the tremors …

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Ghost Park

Ghost Park The dog took off near the backhoe stuck in its rutand I followed through tan brush,watching his white shape zip up the mud path. A plateau halfway up the city mountain:an abandoned basketball court,chain-link strangled by vines,backboard standing indecisive abovea spread of soggy beer-cases, broken bottles, crinkled cans.Of course, a used condom here …

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Finny Cora

Finny Cora Finbar bolted down a big breakfastand walked with his best humanto the greenwhere he had his morning poop–on the way back twenty paces from homeall four feetwent out from under him . . . heart gone that mercifully quick Cora outlived her mateby three yearsslowing down. . . and down . . . …

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monkey bars

monkey bars it’s lifting your feet as trains pass,holding your breath near graves—it’s hidingshivers as you angel in the snow. it’s filling your rain boots with puddles,water-logged Velcrotoo soggy to stick––it’s gum, decades-old,decayingunder desks.  it’s crunching leavesonce they orange;their sound bites like brown-bagged lunch—it’s cartons of milk curdlingin heatwaves. it’s stuffing inch wormsin pocketsand forgettingby laundry day—it’s hanginghand-me-downsyou’re sureare shrinking.  it was sitting on daddy’s suitcase,your …

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I Could Live There

I Could Live There A colonial perchedon a leafy hillside—its yarda backslope of rhododendronand weed, a bit of grasshere and there— I could live there, I thinkas the train rolls by. But then I see a perfect woodof evenly spaced pinesand long to lie on the warmed fallen needles, their scent a relieffrom housekeeping tedium.I …

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When Did Prison Become My Home?

When Did Prison Become My Home? My wife had to leave me first,saying so over the phone,the fifteen-minute inmate call long enoughfor her to speak pregnant & separationso I knew my home was not my home.Then came work, waving its armslike a candidate for office,promising a few extra dollarsin my trustee account. Too,I wrote poems …

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mountebank afternoon

mountebank afternoon (for angele ellis) contrails fadesun tries to breathelife into the old city mission the art deco erawritten in lamppostwatched by eaglesbronzed in way back the wind across mountebankafternoon stretches a flagto the point it could break then take to the skya kite of a freedom imaginedlike the leaves that decoratethese hillsides bare trees

Interstate Five

Interstate Five What remains of these lost deltasafter the mills shut down: an artof disappearing, black-windowed bars,the towers of a closed factorystill blinking their red lights to hideno work’s inside. For yearsI drove past these roadside dinerscarved out of rain, trailer parks linedwith European trees, the truck stopwhere cigarette smoke driftsinto the air like a …

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Colors

Colors Blood-red was all the rage that year — in the fashion magazines and the furniture showrooms.  So, now we had the new loveseat, my mother’s find — the fabric called blood-red, but it looked older and dried up. Something closer to rust. The walls of my room were a perfect sky blue and my …

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Empty Hands

Empty Hands I dream you naked in a worldwhere touch is forbidden this is death, this is longingempty hands squeezing air.

Evacuate My Brain

Evacuate My BrainAlong that wallI could be quietin the dark—club kids, drag queensbrush by in a stiff hitof hairspray, cigarettes,something candysweethoney bring it close to my lipsI’d stand there smoking,watch the crowd on the floormove as a whole, look for facesI know, faces that surprise me,faces I might want—honey bring it close to my lips …

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of what is not written, the archive only dreams

of what is not written, the archive only dreams When the archive dreams of Pittsburgh, smoke poursfrom the stacks, and librarians don goggles, wrap the booksin tarp. When the archive dreams of Pittsburgh, I perch on an overhead crane and watch as a silhouetteemerges from a row of hook blocks, shimmingwith a pole to flip …

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In the Portrait Gallery

In the Portrait Gallery Faces of no one I know, some of themstern-eyed, the rooms they sat in soot dark with coal fires & still births.Thus was born stoicism & the Age of Exploration. I lived that way for decades—alternating between hermitage & pilgrimage; the yin & yang of grim & grin.Sure, the men in …

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Highway 491

If it happens that this road is heaven,close your eyes. On the drive acrosssuch a vast country as heaven must be,the road waves as this one does.Its graceful long arcs lead all the wayto the horizon. And isn’t it sothe road stretches even beyond there?You’ll find you’ve been here all alongon Highway 491. On maps just …

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October

On his birthday she whispered, bereft,and understood her place in the scheme of things.The man next door walked his cocker spaniel,a plastic bag in his hand. The kettle began to steam. At the park she found her bench was takenby a man in an Irish sweater, so went a little furtherand sat beneath the linden. …

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A Moment

While chops sizzle and onions brown,the radio intones failures, floods, and fires,and the family cries its needs, Step out the kitchen doorTrain your eyes on the clouds, rumpled on the darkening sky  How big are they, you wonder, and where is that cicada with its kazoo, and the bees that all day probed the flowers? How far is …

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