“The healing is a continent
too. It is the tissue

of human faith, the ache
of animal longing. “

“By noon, we knew the sun was through with us  
and our small adventure. Even the bloodwort,  
the tall red ferns, and the L-O-V-E scored  
in black paint below the overpass could tell  
we knew nothing of them.”

“Returning home after her divorce, she moves through airport crowds, her grandmother’s house, and the tight choreography of conversation with her mother—love expressed through food, folded clothes, silence, and superstition.”

“In my mind I played the image of him and the visual artist, their long limbs entangled, his hand on her throat, his eyes on her contorted face, his other hand kneading her heavy breasts.”

oiceless
but for when you appear
mirrored, a bloated hag
haw-hawing like a woman
could, I suppose, if he imagined
so.

“Slipping around the woman, who smiles at unconscious Caleb, Daddy Sami spends a minute in front of Frank (No. 7). Massive man, massive cigar, massive leather coat.”

“Now all the women after, are her lovers and will praise her with gifts. With their sacred rot, their bodies will mingle in the making of new soil.”

“She’d thought she could drive so fast in that sleek yellow car that she’d outstrip everything else, make the world a blur. But the world was still there, steam rising from the long sleek hood, the car stopped dead forever.”

“Nearing thirty, we’re still children who see only metaphors. We’re pilgrims who follow the glow, our minds the candles burning in a tin box, all wax and flames.”