poems

The Siddur in Our Kitchen

My Saba’s prayer book  idles on a pedestal  of magazines and opened mail,  receipts and peanut crumbs,  its borders, embroidered,  a mantlepiece for  yesterday things.    It reclines against routine,  drapes a holy face  over coupon clippings—   And I see my Saba in its binds.  Hear his humming  swell from the pages, pressed closed. […]

Melting Snow

When pearl turns invisible,  its glisten reduced to translucence and alabaster drips  through the porch cracks.  Dims the wooden boards  during its downfall.    Does it bring with it splinters,  the manifest brilliance?  Does it soak its route  and gather trinkets, chilled remembrances of grounds which it stood upon?    Patches downsize  under the morning.  […]

On Recovery

I will be okay.   My mother gifted me  her mantra, her syrup reprise— Saccharine coats my fatigue,  my thoughts and slow steps,  candied by her mantra.    I will be okay.   My heels soak its words,  toes submerge between its honeyed spaces. Knees, immoble— I am forced to breathe,  and I breathe its […]

On a Poem

I matchmake my meaning.  Words coalesce and test their phrases,  taste pronunciation, bite their tongue on slanted rhymes— Blood dyes my meaning.    Note their mingling, my words— curious, ambiguous.   Clasping over em-dashes,  forging a single expression.  Dissusable semantics.  A construction unique to their form.    Their verse question until written  declarative, intangible until […]

On Wearing Glasses

Outside these ridges, there is blur.    Wisped irresolution, unfocused wonderings— Prints of unknown things fuse in my periphery,  rim my sight with inquiries,  a halo of curious colors a glance from distinction.    Remain sideways from foresight.  Encircle me in cloudy palettes,  questions and catechisms.    Let me daydream in fog,  eye roll from […]

On the Armless Statue on my Living Room Counter

She leans,  hip juts in clay skirts,  a cloth cast, wrapped. Glazed domestication.    Her waist pinched in naked air,  goosebumps smoothed by artist hands  and oven heat. Hair pleated. Braided permanence.    And her eyes cast down,  and she always remembers her  Missing.    Phantom elbows bend, shadow fingers mingle at the torso.  Raise […]

On Faces and Frames

His nose blurs  from this side of the pane.    Fingertip smudges blot fine lines,  swipe detail sideways,  sweep across oval beige that begs my eyes for clarity.    On seeing an emblem— an unconceived sketch.  Nameless by distance and fingertip prints,  by steps, uncounted, from car door to coffee shop. This pane, a film. […]

On The Leaves Outside My Window

Yellow carpet foliage.  Papyrus trills matted with rainfall,  pressed by stepping sneaker soles and ironed by baby carriage wheels.    Ruffles lift with the wind,  catch its rush under loose edges,  bend to wistful provocations of flight.    But these leaves hold their ground.  Steadfast, stubborn like concrete.  Mark their sidewalk space  and weave Autumn […]

An Ode To Instability

Here’s to unstable grounds— When the soil slopes sideways,  sudden shifts, tectonic shock from still terrain— Your toes dig for traction  but shaky Earth is numb to balance in your feet.    Here’s to this shaky Earth— To quivers from its rocky core,  to quakes that question your kneecaps,  to ruptures that threaten your spine […]

9/24

/2019

Kitchen mornings lulled into overcast.  Gaping windows welcome Autumn—come.  Sit stoolside, crisping leaves. Wet your lips and sip the silence of a sleeping home.    Find solace beside last night’s dishes, still caked with lemon crumble, crusting. Rest for work.  Motion will come. Rest now.  Crisp in our quiet—   A young boy rustles sheets […]