Salt & Longing

Salt and Longingpansies, pen­sées, senses.thoughts— a bou­quet of violets,a vio­lence of violets.voile,voice, voic­es on my radio.radio waves, waves on the beach head,brain head. my bul­ly­ing brain car­ried off by the tidal bore.how many times will you accept­my ungen­er­ous impulse­to con­trol your voice. my unvoiced vowels.after frus­tra­tion, incoherence.incandescent syn­tax of fury.wrath: such a pret­ty word for … 

A Girl

A Girl A girl knows it is best, in the summer,to be out in the alley­be­fore morn­ing cof­fee­brings her mother’s griev­ancesin­to clear focus. A girl hides behind a camel­li­abush wait­ing breath­less­ly­for her best friend’s broth­er­who will lat­er­drop a spi­der down the back of her shirt. A girl can be bought off for two quar­ters and … 

under the heat dome

under the heat domethere is a Siamese cat­cross­ing the alley.he used to be my cat­but he lives with some oth­er woman now.the moon is also a cat—round-faced, old-fashioned, talkative.this moon-cat fol­lows mefrom room to roomas I wan­derin the mid-night.heat soaks into my body;curls under my diaphragm; tries to suf­fo­cate me.she finds me in my chairnestles … 

Ginger

GingerAt the Palacio Municipal, you can pay out­stand­ing park­ing tick­etswith coun­ter­feit 20 dol­lar bill­sand frayed-edged lote­ria cards.I keep La Sirena for myselfand go out into the rain with only a paper umbrel­la to keep the ghosts out of my ears.They get in anyway.In the squarethe Independence Youth Orchestraplays waltzes for your wrist­watch that keep­stime backwards …