“The night we met, you needled your way in through a tiny rip in the screen.”

“The jellyfish first hovered unreachable, removed as backlit clouds.”

“and when the debt collector calls

tells me to pay up I am covered

head to toe in lavender, sunbathing on the deck

sucking hard on a pressed green juice…”

“There is the white belly of a hawk bending

over the Ford dealership on Central Avenue

and there is the voice of my fear which says

I’ll kill you for exposing me.”

“I’m paying attention to the tornado watch that may become a tornado warning across all of north Mississippi. It was calm outside when I came to bed, but in Mississippi in spring the weather can change that fast.”

“She is face down on the table as the hospital machine whirrs closer, and she thinks: she could lose them, these things that she carries, and it would not matter anywhere near as much as she’s told it would matter, though that may be because her breasts have never mattered much to her. “

“Memory Lane, I say; exactly

twenty years tonight. She laughs,

sips ginger ale.”

“Black varnish, marble & brass. We left California on October 1st & are now in Rosarito.”

“It all went to hell when the goats came out corkscrewed

     and killed their mother. Those kids had to be fed wheat

through the chicken-wire pen.”

“It was dark. Cold. I opened my eyes, and it was still dark. Wood at my sides. Softness in the crook of my left arm. My right hand touched a ceiling overhead.”

“The glass was cursed. That was what the twins said the morning Wahala died. They burst into my room, shrieking and bouncing on my bed like it was Christmas Day.”

“I didn’t know her, so I asked her to marry me. I did this many times.”

“When I walk under Darrell and Tabby’s wooden archway leading into their flower garden and koi pond, I hope I’m not intruding. From the rural road we all live on, I waved hello and Darrell waved back.“

“You’re in the bathroom taking the longest whiz of your life when the microwave starts hollering that your food is done…”

“Cleaver me. Leave it to Beaver me.

Beneath all of Ward's shark suits lives”

“With fingertips, I peel off the skin, then debone soft salmon flesh

the hue of autumn leaves, the late afternoon sky. “