there were monsters

at least that much I recall

A roar is caught in her throat,
as she notices him watching blaring videos

I assumed we’d find hospital walls and a priest at our bedside.

I’ve always made lists. Even when Therese was alive.

The last day of the last summer before you got a car, we got the guts to steal the wine from the church refrigerator.

The day the bugs descended, the air was thick with warmth and wings.

It’s a Sunday afternoon in July, so the cicadas are out merrymaking in the mesquite trees off our balcony.

I woke with the 5-something a.m. sunrise to find another owl waiting for me.

When you find me in the courtyard

of a Roman home, bring seven legumes,

She would give anything to roll a seven,

i / fear / for our / future / two / ships passing / we take the night

Hi all, just to say that our 13-year-old tabby cat went missing the night before last.

The cake sat in pride of place in the fridge, an ornate confection of glitter balls and sculpted chocolate frosting and sugar stars and gingerbread men done up as edible silver astronauts.

We were always dressed alike, Maman insisted on it.

The sky wore the regalia of flames

The silence is nice in the beginning.

She's telling me what would happen

if the sun went out

just like this camp-fire.

God save the sheep

baa aah.

I think of you,

and the smallest breeze disperses you

like the leaves of an unbound novel.

i learned the rules of fermentation in the summertime