Isabelle in Sienna
Stomping on thick short legs up cobblestones as large as your feet,
glued to my hand with gelato, you bellow the Sesame Street theme
song—Sunny day, chasing the clouds away! On my way to where the air
is sweet! Isabelle. Ah, Isabella! Bella! Bella! say the museum guards who gather
around you—young women, old men, fellow citizens […]

the way things disappear
here, there is something like humidity
descending against the lake,
bass snapping at mayflies
and a duck wings easily,
low to the surface, splashes down
with a spray of water.

the only purpose for the duck
is to make noise
over the bullfrogs. i need
another sound, a crash sound.
there are certain things
that scare me. waterfalls. black night
windows and the […]

Mango
I bought a mango
from the market
in the Strip district
where the leaves
are half on the ground
and half in the trees
and the street is potholed and almost frozen
and I cut it
like you showed me
back in our Phoenix apartment
on Camelback Avenue
not quite in half
I slipped the blade
around the tough flesh seed
then scored the halves
and turned them inside out
like […]

The Attic Closet
Stand on the rocker and pull
at the latch: inside this cedar closet,
there is another: behind black watch plaid skirts—
school uniforms you have grown out of—
there is a brass-latched door. Slide the lock.
Red-winged Blackbirds from the marsh
out to feed—the shiny, black bird,
red on his shoulders, yellow tinge,
and the female like a large, striped […]