Graduation
All the things the young will do and see
that I never will.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Buying a Home
Tomorrow morning, wake at dawn and look up at the sky
consider if it might fall, crack open and/or turn
and whether you ever want to see it again.
Synapses and Stardust
Image: “Alignment II” by John Paul Caponigro. “Synapses and Stardust” was written by Brandy Norrbom for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, March 2024, and selected as the Editor’s Choice.
My Mother Says
My mother says I sing like a bird
on a winter’s day,
my mother, whose grace catches,
light on water,
on her changing face.
[translate me render me into the martian tongue …]
translate me render me into the martian tongue
across the black night
where the gun stock reaches the star.
beheaded houses hum in the gloom.
the neck vertebra of the torn staircases are exposed.
The One and the Other
The child hums as he carries, too late, / his grandmother’s sugar-dusted lemon-glazed cake …