My Dragon One day as I was walking I passed a secret cave carved in a mountain face, so I decided to go in. Inside the cave I heard a roar. I got a little scared but I kept going. Now I could see something red. I wanted to run back but I was too [...]
The first time I held you We were in the hospital room before your mother Came out of recovery. I was ragged From the chaotic night, the fast change Into operating scrubs, the paced urgency Of the nursing staff as they rolled the gurney Through the double doors, two lives Hanging in the balance. You [...]
The importance of things my father said I might be asked To speak at his funeral. I’ll structure the sentences to soften The brutal impact remembered From a question he asked once About my grandfather that screamed “Why is he so stupid?” Grandpa liked fishing Out by the bridge pylons. My father ran out things [...]
Being good at being a human is like getting certified to fly with instruments: it takes hours of training and we rarely get it right the first time. In a blog post last fall, anthropologist Melvin Konner wrote his excitement about the new science developing that would influence the study of the human condition. He [...]
My reason for laying beside you and smelling like beer When you finish reading this I want you to be able to paint The sky I saw when I walked out To the garbage bin at dusk. Look up past the spring buds Blurring the kinky ends of the ginko To the ribbon of sky, [...]
Two trees I studied the topographical map once To find out the secret of the two big trees In the lower yard. They were the permanent Things about that piece of land our house Had stood on for more than one hundred years. The two acres peaked at 480 feet above sea level And dipped [...]
D’s Communion One time when I was a young man I caught the scent of the priest Through the tannins of the communion wine. He smelled like my father On the morning that he buried my mother. I had just married. My new wife Kept two paces behind me In the communion line. Taking the [...]
My son at 6 at the end of the weekend Your arm drapes along my whole side From my shoulder to my hip to my ankle Where your finger circles the knob Of my joint firmly. I can feel the warm press Of your palm, the weight of your elbow Against the worn fleece of [...]
Early Winter Morning When I am ready to bury you I want the weather to cooperate. That would be a sign of god’s grace. I don’t want to be standing by the open grave In a driving rain, The umbrella fluttering querulously overhead; Or staring at the crystals of a deep frost Bound to the [...]
A’s Communion Through him With him In him In the unity of the holy spirit Unto the hour of death, And the echo of a long valley For ever and ever. Crepe paper lightens my hand The flutter comes from the breath Of the word One supplication in this prayer To feel him A postcard [...]