Landlord

I’m being unfair. At least that’s what Julie, my roommate who wears strappy sandals with t-shirts, says. Today, I’m being unfair because I said that Tony is an amateur slum landlord. She says that I’m being unfair because Tony has another full-time job and he did ask for a list of things we want fixed [...]

Lounging in the common room
at La Casa de Los Amigos,
absorbing a considerably late breakfast.
On mismatched sofas,
travelers from the world over
swap horror stories from airports -
                                                        incorrect tickets,
                                                                         lost luggage,
                                                                                         overnight delays.
In the sun-drenched kitchen,
Bernando refills a cracked water cooler
with purified water
and explains the difficulties
of learning English.
“Grammatica, grammatica, grammatica!”
he exclaims with grand gesticulations,
shaking his shaggy head [...]

Pantoum Exercise #1

Lost in the forest, do my eyes deceive me?
A dwelling not of brick but bread, not of mortar but molasses!
(Triathalon participants suffer similar daydreams,
or so I hear.)
A dwelling not of brick but bread, not of mortar but molasses!
Calories don’t count when out camping
(or so I hear).
Might we start a fire? Does anyone have a match [...]

“Explorers”

Standing on Penn Avenue in the shadow of my umbrella,
I find my eyes drawn to the drops
gathering on the vertices,
and suddenly I am eight again - 
trekking about the half-wild fields
in front of my family’s home -
plucking honeysuckle and storytelling unto myself,
watching nectar – no, honey! – bead up
and savoring it because that is what
explorers (i.e. [...]

“Rehearsal Dinner”

I’m sitting on the cool corrugated brick of the fireplace
at a house filled with well-worn-in relationships
and decidedly new friends,
savoring black beans,
                        pico de gallo,
                                    liquefied habaneros,
                                                and good conversation,
when it happens:
in a much-too-loud-for-indoors-and-such-a-question voice, the father of the groom asks,
“So, are you seeing anyone these days?”
before turning to the other half of my conversation
(my escort [...]