On the Problems of Empathy
Twice a year the orphans come.
Like Job’s children, pawns in a bet
made with the Devil.
Tributes
Back Story
The mate in spandex straps us, front and back,
to flapping canvas sail and walks us backwards
to the speedboat’s slippery stern, back
to where the blue-green sea roils in the backwash.
St. Peter’s Cemetery
Ringed all around is stony silence.
The pallid flowers of death shiver
On the graves, which grieve in the dark—
Although their grief contains no grief.
Resurgam in the Delta Pavonis System
Most inventions are inspired by things in nature. Think of the wheel. Or the computer. The computer is not unlike the human brain, complex and frail, a bearer of bad tidings
One Day
Everything comes back to haunt us
one day the boy you beat
up a long time ago
stands before you in the street car
My Body Is Mine
In that dark, the light
strike startled my mirror.
I saw nudity—by accident—
& did not understand myself
without fabric.