Morning Glory

Morning Glory  Ipomoea violacea It is said we’ve each got a god inside us; that the trick is just to clear the noise from your head so you can hear what it’s telling you. But it enjoys ventriloquy, this god, it’s a pyrostat sounding for no fire at all but the one you make in...

Casey At the Bat (excerpt)

Casey At the Bat (excerpt) And now the leather-covered sphere came hurtling through the air, And Casey stood a-watching it in haughty grandeur there. Close by the sturdy batsman the ball unheeded sped— “That ain’t my style," said Casey. “Strike one!” the umpire said. From the benches, black with people, there went up a muffled roar, Like the...

Lacuna, Lacustrine

Lacuna, Lacustrine The lake has a hold in it is what the child says The lake has a hold in it where the fish jump through by which she means when like a needle then a fish does jump bite and dive lake filling where the body was and closing in on its return just...

Galway Moons

Galway Moons Where there are fields by the lake crazy men own them and won’t let anyone buy in. If you want to partake of Loughrea’s old stone upon stone, get rich quick. There are no more deals. If you can recall the street where you were born pack the memory carefully in the fat...

Self-Portrait As a Slinky

Self-Portrait As a Slinky It’s true I wanted to be beautiful before authentic. Say the word exotic. Say minority— a coiled, dark curl a finger might wrap itself in—the long staircase, and I was the momentum of metal springs descending down and down—say tension. The long staircase, and I was a stacked series of spheres...

Candlewood

Candlewood We go into the dark and the dark opens. Boats tipped with light and moon on the water. There is no difference between the tree and the shadow of the tree, There is no space between light and the wave coming shoreward, No break between the voice and the word. There is no difference...

Game

Game I thought we were playing a game in a forest that day. I ran as my mother chased me. But she’d been stung by a bee. Or bitten by a snake. She shouted my name, which even as a child I knew was not “Stop. Please. I’m dying.” I ran deeper into the bright...

Somewhere in a Dark Auditorium

Somewhere in a Dark Auditorium A ballerina will not stop inserting her small foot into a slim pink shoe, crisscrossing silk ribbons over the bone of ankle. Sometimes I slip into the inside of her body, where the soul wells into the walls that cup the music, quivering there like a diver in a swarm...

The Dragon Tempest

The Dragon Tempest: Tales of Fantasy & Adventure (DKC Contest Anthology Book 2)    The Dragon Tempest offers a collection of short stories in a variety of fantasy genres, including dark, light, adventure, and epic. Creatures from all worlds abound: dragons, angels, centaurs, witches, gods and goddesses, and those lurking below the water’s surface. Whether you’re...