If not for “Alive,” I’d be dead. 

This is a meaningful story about the intestinal parasite I picked up while living in Salt Lake City, in Ted Bundy’s house. 

A bald eagle was shot directly above my head, mid-flight, and its feathers rested gently on my scalp for the rest of geological time.

I was so broke I went to see my mother.

Nothing would deter us.

Esther rises and pulls the cord and moves to the front of the bus, whereupon it brakes and kneels.

From The Happiest Place On Earth

It took a month of working together for Luke to start talking to me.

spell for electron microscopes/ for silicate minerals & landfills

if my friends say you are a cell tower & I am a bird

if when I say I dream of archaeology what I mean is you

The door is open, I said, just come in.

Susan bought a gun that shot doors into things. The doors were small and led to incredible places.

Liz and I sit up with a start.

Well look, the radio says ... 

An envelope with my name on it, xoxo.

We receive phone calls inviting us to the ocean, (a beach day!) but of course we can no longer fit in the sea. We are too big for open waters.

We met in the pathology suite ––me the medical student––you the corpse.

We had a crab dinner at my uncle’s that night.

I’ve bought more used Automatic for the People CDs than I can count.

TO LOUISIANA

I cry because of
how much time
we lost of my childhood
not singing in the front seat
of the white truck yelling
swing low
sweet chariot
coming forth
to carry me

One day, recognize your malformed loneliness like a tumor in your throat.

The first thing I realized was that my legs weren’t broken.

Welcome. Please don’t take my talking as an assault to your personhood. 

Treat

I want to be rewarded for my good thoughts. My good purchase. I want free shipping. Gentle handling. I buy eyeliner. The felt tip, and pointed. I want someone to clap. I buy steel boots. I

“We need a gift that’s really her,” I said. “Really Sophia.”

“Could you define her?”

“A truly independent mind, a renovator, a cultivator.”

I flipped on the lights, turned up the furnace, and cranked some Stevie Wonder.

Cosmogony

In January the birds awakened mid-
flight. In February the bats left
their cave and we called it abandoned.
In March a civilization arose
and fell. In April a ream of gauze
unfurled,