The Heart, Like A Bocce Ball
The jack sits low in the grass. We’re dead drunk,
cannonballing across the lawn, gouging
handful divots, each of us still nursing
a tumbler of scotch brought home from the wake.
In Her Name
No one, not even God, was fully souled
before being Named. The oldest name was
breath
Sestina
Image: “All of Us” by Lou Storey. “Sestina” was written by Amanda Quaid for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, April 2023, and selected as the Artist’s Choice.
A Certain Childhood
For years my sister spoke only backwards
while our brother, her twin, talked like any normal boy.
Poem with a Penis
Because a penis is just like a gun,
the cowboy walks onscreen with a heavy iron.
Papa’s Shotgun
for my daughter, who worries Life got it wrong— not a Boss double-barreled shotgun from Abercrombie & Fitch, but a