My people

We played with sticks for a while, my people looking for wood that was strong and flexible, turning it into specialized sticks. Sticks for scratching for digging out hard to reach infected patches. Then we made the Torah.

The pencil they gave me

The pencil they gave me was covered with paint. I scraped at it. Artisan, whole-leaf paint chips dropped off in spidery clumps. And now I can see, it is an artisan pencil. Made by a man in the mountains of Peru. Separated out from the base of a Peruvian Pencil Tree. Peru. It is a … Read more

Welcome

Welcome to the Golden Age of me flossing my teeth. An upgraded Age of Reason and now even the common man understands that the pale dots on my bathroom mirror are just pale dots and not some grim portent. At night there is light in this magical time. I am guided by the soft reflection … Read more

They are slippery too.

Teach a man to catch worms and perhaps he will be fortunate enough to find some worms. Or perhaps not. Perhaps they will elude him. Because worms are crafty. But give a man a worm, and he can split it in two! And then he will have two worms! I’m asking nicely now: Won’t you … Read more

Being a Goose

do you remember being a goose? do you remember flying in pairs your neck pulled long and straight warm feathering into the wind your boney beak bobbing far out in front to beats pulsed sideways by your partner’s heart?

Call the Water

Is it enough to call the water black to talk about the swirls, the crack in the floor of this Bay That steams up sleep evaporating soaking into a newspaper headline till it has mighty heft Is now a good time to chalk it all up this swirl and this crack this slow-dripping heft to … Read more