Sonnet in Which My Cousins Try to Teach My Abuela How to Float
They hold onto her/ and tell her/ tranquila/ they tell her estamos aquí/ to breathe/ to let go/ of all tension/ and then/ they let her go/ and she…
This is an ode to forgetting
to take the tag off the pink polo shirt my abuela gave me for christmas/ to walking around with the tag hanging on/ sticking out/ like a typo/ this…
Sonnet for My Sadness or Self-Portrait as a Verb That Turned into a Noun
This is a self-portrait with a blueberry- flavored cigar that tastes like heaven but is probably/ no definitely/ hell for my lungs/ with a king james bible that tells…
The Sky in Purple Robes
—after Sappho When Achilles was born the fates spun two threads: one long & dull, another ++++++short & golden: knucklebones chucked ++++++into a circle of dust—tumble &…
A Study in Lavender
Before dawn stretched her rosy-fingers onto earth, before I threw a stone into the eye- socket of a storm & it broke like a cloud of wasps gone haywire:…
The Fall of the House of Britney
I am home with the toilet paper and the vodka and the too-pulpy martini. A glowless fuckery, I am not what Bop wanted me to be. All that Sun-In…
For My Son, Who Asks Me to Replay Lizzo’s “Juice”
At three you have come to love Lizzo and finally my legacy is taking root At night when the moon makes a sailboat of us all, all our…
Widow Sugaring for Moths
The filmy shapes that haunt the dusk. ++++++—Tennyson, In Memoriam Whatever fruit is on hand, mash with wine or beer in a slurry, add a couple cups of…
Even After All
SEATTLE WOMAN, 42, DIES IN CAR WRECK, BAKERSFIELD, CA FEB. 18, 1962 +++++++—News Headline Even after all these years, almost 60 or so, or more, it feels like…
Like a Ship
I want something like a ship, but not a ship, a way to cross the underlying expanse that isn’t water, but feels like water, illegible traces of microplastics,…
Poem at the Edge of a Circle
My house is not a house of small beautiful things and nothing is ever clean here. A pucker in the doorframe indicates the upper floor will soon fall to…
I Decided I Would Fail at Everything
Let my spider plant shrivel in a swim of photons. I found the perfect word and backspaced it out of memory. I slept until everyone slept, then woke to…