Blank Verse Essay on Intentionality in Queer Fiction
I will not say here, 'no more happy ends.' I won't presume to undercut the need For stories of queer heroes of queer worlds Where homophobia has never been. For gods of sunset, moon, and winter know That if no tale but such as these were told...
Eight Minutes and Forty Six Seconds on June Twelfth, Two Thousand Twenty
The rain continues. No thunder dares ring. No winds howl. All is silence, save the sound Of distant trucks down on the interstate. I tell myself, pretend it is the sea That all this rain, perhaps, will wash into. And I remain in silence. What must...
Ragnarok - VI
"In coolness of that evening we stood guard Atop the knoll our mastery had turned To barrow. As the hidden sun went down We watched the pit as does a mongoose, for The snout of the great serpent to appear. While there we watched we argued: How to...
Portrait of a Lonely Wolf
For every day, somebody else has left. For every day, another empty house. For every day is closer to the day When he will be the only one still here. The only one to never find a way To any other place. His road goes but In circles. And he...
Obituary Instructions
Do not call me an angel, when I'm gone. Mourn me, revere me--or not, as you choose-- But as the human person that I was. An angel is a pure celestial thing Too absolute and too ethereal For earthly things like woe or weariness, For home and...
The Heart Lies Only Once
I trust no more a promise made of words. Not for the many vows long-proven false, Not for the monkey's paw, its fingers crossed, Not for the apathies of old lang syne. There's not a one of us has had no need Of some dishonesties, just to...
A Far Green Country
How often have I dreamed of such a place? How often have I seen those emerald fields, And in that dream, forgotten that I dreamed, That I would wake, had woken, and my life Dissolved into a peaceful deja vu That cannot be remembered? I can...
Ghost of the Western Cretaceous Sea
You look around you and you see the peaks. You see the pine heights and the softer trees That flower on the lower, lesser steeps. You see the little rivers, shire-wise, That gently carve the foothills. And the sweep At last of desert floor....
Ragnarok - III
"These ruins have been empty for too long. They ring no more with scarlet laughing flags. They echo not the peal of sparring arms, Nor cries of joyful brotherhood of war. They were not always silent. Once they shone Undusty, undecrepit,...
Ragnarok - II
The sun was gone. The only light that shone Was a reflection off the fading sky, Yet faded not the gold out of the roof, For, at the touch of darkness, fireflies, Lit crisp like Christmas candles, Appeared and turned the leaves to paper...
Introduction to The Lone and Level Sands Stretch Far Away
We met two travelers to an antique land. Across the haunted stars they came in search-- While newly mated, newly hand in hand-- Of shattered remnant visage in the dirt. The one has eyes on knowledge and renown And seeks the truth whatever it may...
I Switch Off All The Lights
I switch off all the lights. Those that I love Are all abed, both in the other room And all across the city that I love. I see my way across the meagre room And to the too-tall curtains by the light Of thrift-store stained-glass lamp, by oven...