Poems

Click on title to read entire poem

As published in the Beloit Poetry Journal

Alpha Images

A

In the beginning

God climbed Louis Zukofsky's

pocket step ladder.

Logo Rhythms

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Judas's cockeyed

kiss or sniper's four quartets--

hoarder's crucifix.

Ciphers

1

Have you no shadow,

Adam without an Eve, O

Thin man of Haddam?

Nocturnes

(Urania)

June, and in millions

                               of jewel-like drops of dew

                                                         dwell diminutive moons.

Demarcations

The Hyphen

Had you a whole line

of them you'd have your own train.

Imagine the freight.

The Haves and Have Nots

Aye, even Shakespeare would plumb trade for my

bones.

The Chills

Awe, we know, is opposite of ennui,

beauty being the form, the good worm to

churn the soil of even the darkest souls.

Constanza

This strange young woman with her black dress

and olive complexion accepts the offer

to walk her home.

Making History

Zero gravity or depravity

yogi or yokel, Roman numeral

X or I, you think you've got a shot and

what you've got is exactly that--one shot.

A Disappearing Act

Zowie, word in a hummingbird heard--gone.

"Yikes!"--what it seems to say with its lofty

exit, its scaredy cat, peek-a-boo play.

(Arachnophobia)

The spider I've missed killing

carries his two broken legs

close to his body

somwhere hidden in the closet.

A Life

With both hands a small boy holds a ball of string so big it

doesn't occur to him there are two ends, so far from him is the

center.

In a Town Called Unincorporated

This guy must

think he's got guts,

the rush and gust

of a pickup truck

honking at a wedding party

poised to cross on the steps of the church.

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A Short History of History

There was that which  we

couldn't possibly understand,

though we did - new

words for war and none

for peace.

American Koan

Call it

the square root of infinity

known only to a coterie

of high school Asian-Americans

as it sweeps through them

at science fairs

like energy

through an international row

of dominoes.