I have an M.F.A. from Washington University in St. Louis. My poetry and
fiction have appeared in Redbook, River Styx, the Colorado Review, Bryant
Literary Review, The Sun, and Indiana Review, among other journals. My second
chapbook Traveling Among the Animals was published in 2002 by Pudding House.
My book manuscript How the Garden Looks From Here recently won the Violet
Reed Haas poetry award and is forthcoming from Snake Nation Press. Currently
I teach composition and creative writing at the University of Northern Colorado.
Rain
Yesterday I drove past a funeral,
dozens of people in sobbing light
and someone being lowered
into the moist black dirt.
A man lifted his hands to his face.
I thought of my friend in the desert,
her firstborn buried in ground
which gives back nothing.
At home the lake surrenders, finally,
to the weather: a crushed gray sigh
floating the paired geese
like dark swans in an old story.
The Ring Around Us, a pantoum
A sudden gust of wind on the rim of sleep
Waking seeds ticking in the bird feeder
Where soft green wings in the river limbs rustle
Pale light of finches halo the elm tree
Waking seeds ticking in the bird feeder
And the bones of the young fox buried beyond
Pale light of finches halo the elm tree
Ghost of a good dog and three silky cats
And the bones of the young fox buried beyond
At the edge of the yard with its ribboned grass
Ghost of a good dog and three silky cats
A necklace of creatures stirs the soil
At the edge of the yard with its ribboned grass
What we love fringes the hem of our slumber
A necklace of creatures stirs the soil
A sudden gust of wind on the rim of sleep
Unrecovered
If the train came late and stood steaming on the tracks
If the children were arguing but you left on time
If taxis flew past even though your hand was raised
If a man bent down to pick up loose change
If the phone was ringing in an empty room
If the room was ringing in an empty mind
If ash has sifted to the back of your tongue
If the needle sings your name after all these years
If a bottle knows you better than the one who is missing
If they can't find a body whose heart gets buried?