I heard when you got to New York you went about picking up every blonde woman in a white dress and a beret looking for me. I only knew of your dark leathery hand sliding into the ninth floor of my hotel window to cradle me like that night we met atop the world and you permitted me breathe in…

What She Doesn’t Want She doesn’t want to complain. That in itself makes things quite difficult. She only gets to walk the path of beauty once, and she doesn’t want to do it in rags. She doesn’t want a dog and she doesn’t want a gun, not even for protection. She doesn’t want to have to beg for light, and…

Gossip The man who lives in the shack in the woods is the planter of weeds. He wears a fisherman’s hat and carries a burlap satchel. When he steals chickens, he puts them in this satchel. When he steals eggs, he puts them in the hat. His heart is flies on a rotten apple. His ethics are the eyes of a dead sheep. He…

Machinal Pull yourself together You did this to yourself You made it this way Tell the story The story of a helpless creature A being who did not ask for this Any of this Sometimes the stories we tell Are not just reflections of us Sometimes we create As a cry For help God help us all Why would you…

All of this feeling, all of this wistful, all these memories in the shape of phantoms, the snakeskin of your arms around me? This nomadic heart which always finds its way back to you? The soft underbelly of rage, which was always secretly an armful of sorrow? A shrapnel of grief? A mouth like an open wound? Your name engraved…

A Flat Tire You contemplate the car sitting back on its round rubber haunches as if it were some lame exotic animal, the last of its convertible kind. Pity in your eyes, you bite your round rubber lip and put your ear to the warm tire like a stethoscope to listen for the telltale hiss. You hope only to diagnose…

Black Houdini For a while, he’s been missing our Mheshimiwa— A shepherd unseen A leader heard A presence unfelt A true, black Houdini. Five party-branded calendars Cheap and unseemly Used and discarded After having angered our visitors Marred our living rooms. No word from his honorable person No help from his hired personnel. No progress report on his projects Stalled…

Plunging blade into white water,      my older cousin leaves girlhood  in the smooth wake     of creamless strokes.  Later, I creak the vanity     open, knock over bottles and jars      and hunt on Barbie-like tiptoes     for the can of Barbasol. I fill the bath with water so hot it turns bathroom     to…