Portrait of the Father as an Alcoholic
The first thing I notice about him
is the expression on his face baring
his sobriety is a bubble one can pop
with a blow.
Nyctophobia
I’ll stay awake, stay up all night,
Keep wide my eyes and cocked my ears;
I’ll keep the whole damn room within my sight,
The phone in my left hand, a gun in my right
Fall
“If you don’t believe in something, you’ll fall for anything.”
—Falsely attributed to Alexander Hamilton
Maybe Lewiston
Maybe we will see Katahdin, we tell our children; maybe we will see a moose. Pulling over at the Lewiston Travel Center, trucks at the tagging station, hunting season just beginning.
Underwater Lakes
there is a stillness in me that refuses to be translated,
oceans within oceans; my halcyon halocline unmoving,
stiffened by my own salty breath.
Two Months Before My 65th Birthday
There is no lifeboat, no raft,
no deserted island with coconut trees
and fresh water. You can’t slow down
the waves.