Dandies moved into Peacock Lane & put a sexy leg lamp in their postage stamp bay window / The HOA was pissed but could hardly do a thing to stop gentlethems from erecting sexuality like a lacy middle finger / The chairwoman of the decoration subcommittee made salted pistachio brittleContinue Reading

She cornersit in the parlor. She tramps downon its tail,watches as itfrantically runs in place. She carries itshivering in her teeththen, as if overcomeby a spark of kindness,puts it down on the floor,but, as it’s aboutto dash to freedom,she bites down hardon the poor thing,cracks its back,gnaws away at itsfleshContinue Reading

You were maroon and indigoA kaleidoscope of a personYour body floated like cloudsAnd you looked at me like something with wings and feathersYou looked like starlight encircling planetsLike you left moonbeams instead of footprintsI loved you like a cloud, like something just passing through.But if clouds are just vapor(Just waterContinue Reading

It never rainsin the Gingerbread Forestbecause that would be catastrophic—houses turned to mush,the occupants smotheredbeneath a slurry of crumbled walls,delicious but deadly. You’d thinkthat endless sunshinewould be a lovely thing,but it’s not.Even filteredthrough leaves and branches,the light is too constant,too bright,too much. As for those trees,deprived of rainthey are forcedtoContinue Reading

PADUA, ITALY 1844 Curious young scholar from NaplesWandered into a fertile private gardenHe first saw through his guest bedroom window.By an unusual purple shrub with botanical gems, an exquisite bloom stood Slender, alluring, barely comingInto womanhood. Her scent,Cloying like lavender. Her touch,Lethal like aconite. The maiden Her famous scientist fatherCalledContinue Reading

First of all, Gina was not my cat. She was Melba’s, my landlady. She waited a month after her other cat, Chester had died. He was 15.Melba was 85 at the time. I was her tenant. We met at a senior center. I once mentioned needing a new place toContinue Reading

Chapter 1: Concrete Poems on the theft of Euterpe’s Elixir The gods whispered inspiration through gilded corridors,and the students drank deeply of creation’s endless well.But one among them—Professor Moros—grew restless.He saw not a gift but a shackle,not a blessing but a barrier. Why should creativity bow to unseen hands?Why mustContinue Reading

I should have known there was acatch. I thought my new husbandwas the catch, but that was before hetook me home to his dark house ofshadowy secrets, of strange pluckingsof the sleeve of my soul, of sudden clammycoldness creeping across my face the momentI set foot in the house he’dContinue Reading

I follow the trailthrough the angry treesas the wily wind whips leavesoff their skinny armsand throws them to the ground.The trail is littered with gold and brownobscuring the path.I am lost in a storm of coming autumnand do not knowwhere my footsteps should fall–enveloped in sunlight and cold–alone beneath theContinue Reading