I am tucked up here out of sight. I am tucked up here in the bell-tower of Our Lady of Retribution: my own space well-stocked and arranged just so. This tower was raised in the year blank-blank, the year of…

  I was eight, I was forced south. Not long after, when I opened my mouth, a strange thing happened. I lost my Scottish accent. Words fell off my tongue: eedyit, dreich, wabbit, crabbit stummer, teuchter, heidbanger, so you are,…

Don’t talk to me of love. I’ve had an earful And I get tearful when I’ve downed a drink or two. I’m one of your talking wounded. I’m a hostage. I’m maroonded. But I’m in Paris with you. Yes I’m…

  1 Stone cries to stone, Heart to heart, heart to stone, And the interrogation will not die For there is no eternal city And there is no pity And there is nothing underneath the sky No rainbow and no…

Now in thy dazzling half-oped eye, Thy curled nose, and lip awry, Thy up-hoist arms, and noddling head, And little chin with crystal spread, Poor helpless thing! what do I see, That I should sing of thee? From thy poor…

Sometimes the only babies  us women (sub)consciously  choose to birth are our words.     Always a late developer,  mine scratched  on pregnant pause—    then forced their  way out of  tight lips.     Wayward, untidy, they  crawled naked into  the…

Somewhere someone is traveling furiously toward you, At incredible speed, traveling day and night, Through blizzards and desert heat, across torrents, through narrow passes. But will he know where to find you, Recognize you when he sees you, Give you…

I have gone out, a possessed witch, haunting the black air, braver at night; dreaming evil, I have done my hitch over the plain houses, light by light: lonely thing, twelve-fingered, out of mind. A woman like that is not…

//    Valentine    the men outside  are men outside.   Valentine wonders   if it is always  the same men outside  if they   want   the same thing.    they want to come  in. the locked room. the occupied body.    she muses   it…

Some of us are out of it, it is too late, And happiness is the sweet thing to break, And being so, you will have to keep your life, Even if you love me. The eyes inside this orange curly…

Each day I try to be less  scared of where love will lead—  what it will ask of me—    fearing    it will be misunderstood—    fearing    my tight hold onto love’s hand  will be loosened…  by the…

some pyrite worms gobbled long ago stayed  lodged in our throats. irritated. we tried  honey. we hacked. we swallowed hard.  it took a stab in the black for us to gob it  all out. look. listen. amber chunks dredged  up…

The Set Up    If you did see people that first night. People for so. Who come from town, from far like St David, from near like St Mark to this little St John parish. It had the makings of…

Mother, among the dustbins and the manure I feel the measure of my humanity, an allure As of the presence of God, I am sure In the dustbins, in the manure, in the cat at play, Is the presence of…

when they first came over nobody knew what finland was or where it was or what to even wear on the flight you passed the medical examination & stood there glorious as a beggar as the amreekan doctor laughed after…

I’m wondering if the angel could have warned the slaves, the same way it warned Joseph before King Herod’s attempt to kill baby Jesus.   The March – Ouidah, Benin. 17th century   I’m sure they just walked.   Parched,…