• Familiar

    I am the Cat who walks by himself, and all places are alike to me. ——Rudyard Kipling, “The Cat that Walked by Himself” I can’t imagine owning a dog. He’s forever a child: big eyes looking up, ball dropped at my feet, panting drooling tongue, dirty paws on my jeans, howling and whining when I Read more

  • A man

    Today I am the CEO of the coal-fired power station and they want to shut it down There are thousands of them shouting To heal the earth they say we need clean renewable energy, and they are right. But I am so afraid. When I was a child they said you have to get a Read more

  • unspoken

    What I wanted was to take your hand— nothing more Just to hold hands like five-year-old sweethearts A skin energy A quiet giving and quieter taking of a quiet love Connection unspoken. But I am a woman and you are a man and to everyone else, we are no longer five First published in Creatrix Read more

  • a lark

    By the river on Monday morning under the narrow wood/iron framework of the one-track bridge I stood still as the train rushed over with almost no sky between the howling shaking commuting load and my mortal body. I braced my teeth, hissed in a breath and held it. My whole skin shrieked. I stepped out Read more

  • My lover’s hair breathes sunshine, shampoo, smoke. It rings me a secret peal. Under my hand it’s tangled-trick and smooth-slick, cat, otter, always slipping away. The wind is in it even when it’s still. First published in Creatrix Read more

  • But the young man sitting on James Street seemed different. Something about him made me stop and bend down to look at him. He had a clear face, clear eyes, and a red graze on the side of his face as if he’d been hit or fallen. Read more