You tell me Alice Walker says:

Let us bring attention to George's mother.

She who came weeping, and picked up the shattered pieces of her child,

as black mothers have for so long.

May you be free

May you be happy

May you be at peace

May you be at rest

May you know we remember you.

For learning to make rituals for hard things that will happen,

for those structures that explain but do not justify.

honoring aching in abstraction and in specificity:

This is a space where a poem was

for your patient who did not come in last week.

and this is for your father,

and for my uncle,

and for my uncle, and

for your father,

and for your father,

and for your sperm recipient's wife, and for your father.

You and Me, Bess

And then, out of nowhere,
after a day of sandpaper,
I find my voice again, and
always in the strangest places.

dangerous games

i wake up twice and i find that i'm exactly where i thought i'd be

but i don't want to be there
i was secretly hoping for something else
something bad
something that would have
done damage to us

but maybe it's for the best
that nothing happened

my mind takes me places where my body can't possibly go
and for lack of a better word
all i can say is
thanks

CORVALIS II

The kind of town I’d like to show Stefan in Sofia
this is America 1 and 2 and 3

Sitting on the bench like I did
working a wedding in St. Paul

The stairs were wet I wrote a letter
the bridesmaids were more beautiful than even the usual beautiful

I wanted a coke the plastic cup
cracked I left a print

Oregon state university football
is a big deal and Jerry Garcia

Things like gelato, espresso,
Indian embroidered fanny packs

I talked to Ellis in a similar sunshine
a parking lot in what’s that town called where the Kennedy’s stayed

Friends in pairs bring paper cups to the benches by the river
friends in pairs and cocker spaniels

Our families floated down the river
everyone was upset

Everyone floated in a certain way
to show how much they cared