danced and wobbled ‘know that tea’ intrusion and alarm charming kiss-curls something caustic and laughable big cropped head without fault a special cup and saucer kisses and calm dinners a woman who has read Spenser without love, I will tell you to the pines, to the mushrooms covered his face with a handkerchief (…)
taking what he wanted better now me for a time ‘apart from my hate’ move from typewriter to typewriter thrust then customary gentle trot cold grey eyes pub bull the kitten Blackie
anything alive grip each rib people in ice age knew into the Bering Sea no breaks or blood how many firsts kelp is only ice stone bone amber these bones eleven rocks head deep in till wet from birth a dangerous Eden islands and sinkholes claws or horns every other invasive pig
heavy with insignificance cobweb of fake thoughts their mutton am done for fled on up if he were only clean half-heroic men her little soft hand indignation passed unnoticed he nursed scent of rose leaves least selfish moment spit you a man sinking pin one into her heart
used to be could forgive everything smoke with a friend the gift of self-assertion as the Viceroy said more than a sister loafing up so happily unhappy alone in the jungle better men about worms
After Darin Elliot (my collaborator on Elephant in the Living Room, whose bright new solo publication Elephant in the Shadows was featured in a recent posting), and I quarantined together for more than ten weeks, he moved on (to upstate New York, then to Boston) for a couple of months but returned in September for(…)
‘wake up Philip” after breakfast arid and precipitous lies were beautiful something must be done at the outside embarrassed but gallant such perfect French stick funnily two tall girls only twenty-nine ‘I hate English life’ native insistence how little done
muddy whim so-called governor or oysters or food get news too much no luck a little nut-full they all lied pen, paper unlearned, incurious ever disentangle I should give you their new flag unnatural lives baby clothes, baby clothes
Darin Elliott, with whom I co-wrote “Elephant in the Living Room” (the family story of an alcoholic intervention for middle school-age kids) got trapped here with me between stays in London and North Carolina. As it ended up, he and I co-quarantined for ten weeks. I got Covid-19, he didn’t, we sent away for and(…)
clear away human traces distrust the country sick breakable all weather ‘I look like what I am’ benign to brutal a long line of bullies wide guileless they wait other people’s holidays sly and unseen her apron always going to leave nuns and priests in the wrong life
