If you don’t work, you don’t
eat. That’s the way I learnt
[…]

Rivers fat with spring sliding by
on muddy oiled bearings in dawn blue […]

Trumpet squeal, rose stink, pepper flame, needle
prick: the eye blinks blind to all, unconcerned […]

A package can change your mind
about what’s inside. The way white […]

This appliance is constructed to process
normal household quantities. Qualities […]

It’s so _____ no one can ________ much without
tiring of the __________. Twister put you in […]

My wife tells me I’m fluffy. Rivals beg
to differ. The defense rests till fresh dirt […]

If childhood was a plump freckled mess—
your head a bowling ball of grief, lonely […]

I will take you to the rivers
I have known, throw you in and watch […]

Who mooted the question of place, a home
page for life, the settling on a site where […]

Every Monday you check into the grand hotel
of your addiction for a meeting in the stingy […]

Like the Kenyan woman who killed her kids
and ate bits but was only charged […]

After the Rambler, so mechanical and sideways
on the ice, we thought ourselves lucky […]

Everyone’s got one. How she
holds the family together, makes […]

Having a child or having an affair
inverts the equation: what’s had, mister, […]

Who owns a letter? I’ve burned them, boxed them,
thrown them in the chopped Hudson. They floated . . . […]

The ocean of thought at the bottom
of the barrel, breaking like waves […]

He tickles the cactus with small fingers
of water, alone in the fluorescent […]

The radio clears its throat of morning
news and traffic as the chardonnays get […]

Her body now an overpeppered stew:
so much raunch through the years, leaving flesh […]

All the crummy things that happen
on a day-to-day basis—a perfect beer […]

A bluebird in my garden pecking
at the dead butterfly is me. […]

The way lightning touches a deer’s antler
on the lusty rock outcrop—foraging […]

Machete elbow of camera slashing pictures
out of context: the local real-estate […]

Five men on their knees in the sand, arms lashed
behind their backs. Ships in the calm distance, […]

A spiky purple ridge is all that’s left
of yesterday. Let’s celebrate tomorrow […]

The facts don’t lie: women have been chopping
men’s members since the first stone tools got sharp […]

Lying in the rotting sun, shining white,
the embassy turns its air full-blast. Red […]

How much they owe you? Boy: fourteen, gawky,
braces, B+, shortstop, oboe, debate, […]

Mr. Full, I’m Mr. Empty. Rub my bones
together to spark a wispy fire. Swallow […]