Comma of God I am nothing compared to the Medicaid sneer I am nothing compared to the owner of the door I am nothing compared to the elevator of Heidegger I am nothing compared to the spokes of Vincent’s Belgian... Continue reading

Primary It’s as if I were lying down in the colonnade, in the Lincoln Memorial, in the forest where every tree is so, in the field where the dragon’s teeth were, where we sowed the wind, Mr. President. And I... Continue reading

Information The boat is the story the ocean tells. The village listens intently and sings for fish. The road carries the carts in only one direction. Where it ends the railroad seems propelled by lights. Information The edge of night... Continue reading

Will of God A balloon reaching for the altitude at which explosions occur. An aerial photographof a field taken by brush fire. The pollen, a spore from Texas, which genetically alters corn in Mexico. Potatoes planted in steps on the... Continue reading

In the Field The bungalow is empty now. The clock swings in silence. (I see Grandpa taking me to the urine bucket on a mossy floor, where bamboo curtains moldered.) The bigger room of the first uncle is filled with... Continue reading

Hawk Sometimes I awake with a headline stuck in my head: Doctor in Bangor Treating Elvis for Migraines; Pharmacist Completes History of Drive-InMovie Theater—and I write it all down in my little red notebook. But there are other nights when... Continue reading

Gaston Leroux Frankenstein was the creator, but the name in time came to refer to the creation. Were someone to identify a human being as God, the inevitable response would be ridicule, if not concern for psychological wholeness. Dracula, befitting... Continue reading

Coracobrachialis A deep muscle of the armpit, its action is adduction--put the arm against the body. It can permit love letters to be folded near the chest and stuffed into envelopes, but it cannot raise them to the mailbox (elevation... Continue reading

Arf Dogs give commands to me in one syllable, the same one again and again. I speak back in polysyllabics above my one great bark. It's like my dreams falling all night in technicolor splendor. I can't remember what. When... Continue reading

A Traveling Monk Observes I have noticed in my travels that people do not put Kleenex out for guests. They do not even put out trash cans to put the Kleenex in that they do not put out. I have... Continue reading

Navel 1. Button sewn to our skin, the thread bitten off by the eternal seamstress, the darner of celestial socks. Sewn to our chests that way, you would think it holds body and soul together, the only button on the... Continue reading

The First Laugh The first laugh was God creating the universe. That guffaw is still exploding in all directions, hollowing out and filling the farthest reaches of space. What could have been so funny? The idea of light and sound... Continue reading