Shine on Harvest Moon
Shine on Harvest Moon And who knows, anything can happen, during the harvest moon if I survive that long. In montauk, over the waters that turn green, then, blue, then white like the irises of lavender flowers that blossom in your upturned eyes, and the stores, cafes, restaurants, grocery shops, …
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Ways of Falling
Repetitiously A dream that I dream repeatedly: The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) stops building the I-35W Bridge. Instead of a crossing that straddles the open air above the Mississippi, MnDOT builds a tunnel under the river. As is the way of dreams, the distortion of reality plays out like …
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Mapping the Sinister
I. My right side always hurts. First, my wrist: ligaments too floppy. Then my hip: the ball joint misshapen so that it rubs against the socket, tearing the protective labrum between. The hip pain spreads to my knee: I can’t hike down a steep hill without a sharp, stabbing sensation. …
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The Expectation
One childhood summer morning in Maine by the lake, I lay in my top bunk studying the creatures formed by knots in the pine board walls. One resembled a bat spreading its wings, another a bull snorting out steam. I contemplated the knots like puzzles, just awake in that time …
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A Matter of Taste
First day, near the end of a one-hour dive rotation. No sharks. A November plankton bloom has reduced viz to 20 feet, if that. Vastness of the sea compressed tight around the shark cage. These waters of Isla Guadalupe are known for their clarity, like an inverted sky, you were …
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Circled by Sun
The sun is my drug. The light spirals the ice sheet and fades only with clouds and thick storms and wind that howls. I could stay awake through this longest of southern days. I could stare into the yellow tent fabric flapping frosted condensation onto my sleeping bag. I could …
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Love’s Drowning
cw: self-harm and disordered eating My foster daughter Janine stares me straight in the eye as she rips off one fingernail after another, dropping each into the bowl of oatmeal I have served, sure that I will not make her eat it now. Her blue eyes pierce me. Her soft …
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Mother Cake
Scratch In May 2020, Minnesota Stay-at-Home Order Week Five, I see a recipe in the newspaper: parsnip-cardamom-ginger cake with buttercream frosting. I write down the ingredients. Maybe flour is back in stock. It’s the day of my weekly grocery run, and yes, I grab a five-pounder of flour off the …
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Marbles, and Other Things of a Spherical Shape
The Marble Collectors Society of America explains, “There are many mineral spheres available. Most of these are not true marbles, but merely minerals in the spherical shape.” The Truth of Marbles Grandfather brought home a beaten-up pachinko machine. Look at these metal spheres, Grandfather said, holding the objects in …
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