Pruzzels

red plum its fallen petals ablaze on horse dung Source: Kern, Adam L. The Penguin Book of Haiku. London, UK, Penguin Books, 2018.‌

I’m in an MFA program and not updating the website.

I am only kind to my fatherin poems he will never read.I try to imagine him small the way my grandmother tells it:patient, deerlimbed, ponderingpolynomials. Wanting onlya Toblerone bar for his birthdayto eat alone in his roomaway from the violence of explodingraindrops, pitiless Madras summer.I wonder if he is proudof his life like I am proud of my poems—the bestwe could do. In another worldI…

We warbled on the muddy banks and waded up to our throats in the Delaware River, talking about Ovid washing himself in the Black Sea and Paul Celan floating face down in the Seine.We swam arm over arm through the green silt and coasted along on our backs, marveling and mourningfor Shelley drowning off the shore at Viareggio and Li Po tumbling drunkenly into the Yangtze.These were the strokes we…

Either art is the site of a philosophical investigation which is relevant to human experience or it is nothing.” —Mel Bochner

One decides to warn the others or not of the crocodile shore its great imposition or not understood with teeth in the present tense of fascism o don’t say facism say they them say coca cola new line bottles with petrol the number flutters off the page subracting the abyss with a hoot in the mirror deaf and dumb and done or not signifies a dial tone.

Photo credit: https://english.ucdavis.edu/people/joshua-clover We lived in a cloud of recklessness South of Market in a house with an accent when he said Taylorism it sounded like terrorism we lived in a cloud of restlessness and felt ourselves to be adrift east of China west of France south of Market north of Chance we lived in a fog of remorselessness in a long wave in a K-wave we sang I’m…

Bright and adventurous pomegranates seven o seven pull apart songs of temperament their temperament is not going to change they are too old for that.

He did not look like a man who would change her life or three men lying in what will someday be the morning before going to work or kissing silence the pristine clarity of purposeful breathing of dogs straining against the hiss of runners the opalescent arc of long imagined reunions with god’s joy leaking for the first time since it had crawled under sarah and shuffled out of the cabin bundled in…

Merlin the color ofThe oft published bird whoWon’t worry about pleuralPossessive plural effusionStretching techInsists on easy bookWith no words body withNo interstitial little bird don’t peck my vanity and ruineverything.

must         must must must    must  must must must must must must must          must must must must must  must  must         must         must must must must must          must must must must  must            must         must  must      must must          must must      must must must must must must  must must must must venture families blaze  through         canadian rockies…

must         must must must    must  must must must must must must must          must must must must must  must  must         must         must must must must must          must must must must  must            must         must  must      must must          must must      must must must must must must  must must must must venture families blaze  through         canadian rockies…

Merlin the color ofThe oft published bird whoWon’t worry about pleuralPossessive plural effusionStretching techInsists on easy bookWith no words body withNo interstitial little bird don’t peck my vanity and ruineverything.