Abecedarian for Alabama Libraries
Alder to ash: what can be sacrificed,
boned, defanged, let it be. Burn it to
cinders to keep children civil.
Don’t end until not only paper’s
extinguished, but cards & computers, too.
Poets Respond
Poem in which Barbie Qualifies for Medicare
Barbie never thought too much about her eligibility.
She’d loved AARP—the discounts at Sunglass Hut
and Outback Steakhouse—when she waved
her bright red card.
Kill Them in the Morning
I’m trying to find where it says,
If your enemy comes to slay you at night,
kill them in the morning.
Man with Birds and Bread
On the edges of the afternoon
we lie on the beach, gray waves
the only language,
the gun-gray curlings of salt-tongue.
A Kaddish for Aaron Bushnell (1998-2024)
Praise beyond all conception of praise the things we cannot understand,
this thing that doesn’t want to be praised, this tragedy laid over tragedy to stir the watching,
misunderstanding crowd from their pulpits. From their bedsides. From their phones.
Two years later.
The last thing I want is another poem
about war and dead children and how
we’ve forgotten their names.