Poetry
“Poems don’t last as objects, but as presences. When you read something worth remembering, you release a human voice: you return a kindred spirit to the world. I read poems to hear that voice. I write to speak to those I have listened to.”
–Louise Glück
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Mansion
Even though you insist on denying the affection you hide inside, it is enough for me to pause in your gaze, and at once I know you return it.
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Pepper
I could see his home-job hair dye around his mouth, around his hairline, black dye dotted like pepper, like a miniature Kusama, like I don’t prefer salt.
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Wish You Were Here
Imagine the photograph: a woman alone, on the corner of an island, in the middle of winter, smoking her last cigarette.
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Fever dreaming
Amidst the chaos of my head, I can’t help but imagine how you keep placing poppies in my hair. Let’s lie under this fake aurora borealis with the crisp night air…
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Gardenias
I want to smear your face over mine and keep up with your step, pretend we are mushrooms, cursed gargoyles trembling to slow music, two punctured cans, a centerpiece, a set of spoons.
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From My Language
My tongue holds me, and I hold it as my home and my eternal friend. We keep forever the answer to people’s anxious doubt. I show it my cave, I perform an autopsy on myself, and it gives me the word—the sacred word.
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Empty Dawn
Your laughter no longer fits in my nights, it slipped out through windows I never closed.
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Boarding
Dicen que no hay retorno. El invierno llegó, hoy se siente a ocho grados. No sé cuándo voy a volver, pero sí sé lo feliz que puedo ser.
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Eclipse
Five springs ago I planted your memory in a tree that dried out, and I am responsible for that; in search of privacy to speak with you, I planted you far from the others.
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Music On Tippy Toes
Muted diminished thirds wobbled over open fifths. She pointed to the center of the guitar and said: the music is there inside, and it comes out on its tippy toes to dance in the light.
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Refuge: A Poem for Those Lost at Sea
On land, your place in it will someday be remembered, and they will cry out who did not save you and hurry out to the sea to cradle you in your rebirth.
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Trace
Others will come who will keep in their hearts the same useless longings, the same unsatisfied desires, the same foolish ambition that I have.
