Author Archives: lara

Waiting for the Rains

Waiting for the Rains20 miles to the north the Bolt Creek fire burns up a draw towards the ridge climb­ing along lines laid deep in the soilit burns first one waythen anoth­erthe weird sen­tience of wild fire­its imper­a­tive to con­sume and grownow blocked and burn­ing back on itself­burn­ing the trees to char­coal and then burning … 

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Arson

ArsonDawn cracks open the world,forcing its upper win­dows ajar.Letting the first spark oflight into the darkness.Dawn takes dark­ness for granted.Takes her job of break­ing night for granted.Dawn is care­less, heed­less ofhow bright­ly she burns.She doesn’t con­cern her­self with the flam­ma­bil­i­ty of daylight.She wants only to extin­guish the stars. Published on The Laundry Line, 15 April, … 

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Prayer for an August Morning

I, unac­count­ably, love vultures.Shy and over­ly friendly,they’ll care­ful­ly pluck the but­tons from your shirt.No real­ly, it hap­pened to me.Well, it was only one button.Gaining a vulture’s trust takes time.In the heat of a late August morn­ingtry a hose that sprays cool waterun­der their wings and across their heavy chests.Afterwards, glis­ten­ing wings held wide,the vul­ture will … 

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Supplication

SupplicationWe need a patron saint for the banana box­es that they pack your gro­ceries in down at Costco,… for boys in back­wards ball caps,… for vel­cro shoes and old men with wrap­around sunglasses.We need a patron saint for poets the ones with­out faith and the ones with scars from teenage acne, … for body oil, … 

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