Poems

Only talked to her once asked how she got her kinky hair so smooth and glossy. Mayonnaise, she said. Eyes down. Posture, that of a reluctant Princess too elegant for Fourth Grade. We called her Miracle Whip, the miracle part not said in awe. The word “whip” cracking from an ugly part of us we […]

My mother rented an old apple press from some farmer out in the country. We weren’t farmers, but we had apples. Knobby-knuckled, gnarly old trees with leather-hide bark.  The apples, mealy and worm infested.  Soggied brown.  Each time we cranked the press, the grinder squeaked like the boards on a covered bridge, smashing the apples […]

lord hear our prayer baptized you at bedside  with shaking palms the our father  recited in smattering latin     her nerves so wrought     she forgot  to sprinkle the holy water collected from the bathroom tap but she did perform  some sort of sign of the cross with her thumb  to your temples […]

Today we will buy garlic from the Hmong woman with no teeth, thinking we know something about the humid forests and many hills of her childhood, just because we have eaten Pho and liked it.  As she gums her withered mouth, we will nod and point, point and nod, feeling the subterfuge in our smiles.  […]