Two of My Latest Published Poems

Following up on my last post—Three Poems to be Published—I can now post two of them, below. (Once a magazine comes out, the rights revert back to the author). The first is from the magazine Constellations; the second, from the British magazine Seaside Gothic.

The One-Time Grandma

Was only fourthe one time evershe came to see mebrought me a truckfilled with hard candydoors opened, tires rolledjust this one gauzy image—her abundant, smiling facecraning down to mea face that held a theaterI couldn’t knowof cobwebs and cold cornersof unpainted pain in triplicateand difficult wishes boiling in potson an ancient stoveears that held the screamingof her sister being rapedover and overby a mob of menand of distant deathand death too closeat the hands of thugs and militiashate, rape, thievery and murderin the pogrom of 1905as it had been for Jewsfor millenniums

What Happened When We Emerged from the Ocean, Anyway

What happened when we emerged from the ocean, anywayreturned from eternityand the Moses shoresReborn in the Jersey lights— the high sheen of industrialblood and glitzy sinHere on the boardwalkwhere kids fly across lit towersand lizard eyes spy from wild ridesThe wooden coaster tattoos the horizon like a snake goddess,great wheels topple to the musicof clatter and screamsA cavalcade of plush figures,necklace of chance stands and fry huts,where lunatic visages frame dark portals with invitations to cheap seduction Ghosts of Freud and Coney Islandyet watch from the grandstandsplay Fascination with Madame Twisto and the Mule-Faced BoyTen-wheelers tear the ancient sandsflowers show from the boxesof jeweled motels where Jewsand Italians once shared radio songs of Rosemary Clooney and Johnnie Ray