zinc words & images

  • Depressive Interstate Communication

    I am not sure how to say, “I miss you” without fearing your reply. Days, months and years came upon me quickly, so that now, the past seems distant and I seem callous. I was drowning and still I circle the edge of a pond that I am at the bottom of. If today is…

  • Musings on a Single Topic #2

    What are phantoms made of? stardust memories The mist from lava dropping into the ocean ectoplasm open doors blowing curtains words spoke softly dim lamps with antique shades beaded curtains crackling branches padded steps on a wood floor lost loves good advice, in retrospect dappled forest light letters photographs portraits historic markers a large single…

  • Der Blauen Kunstler

    When you paint a house on canvas it must be blue, for this is the color of home. The soft robin’s egg edges of motherly relationships, the deep indigo of sleep and dreaming begins at your hand. Reunions, a pale sky of ephemerous greetings and embraces. However wayward the color of distant foothills and city…

  • Musings on a Single Topic #1

    What is left behind? Me You We Paper clips and candy wrappers Friends from high school Friends from college A car, in the parking lot of a bar, when you’ve had too much to drink A CD, a favorite one, in 1998, in your ex’s car Doggie bags full of leftovers A credit card A…

  • Grower Hope

    Holding this blueberry in my hand, I do not know where it came from or how it will grow. The ground is too shallow here, stained with saltwater and filled with debris. Skree is really all it is, no place for this tiny thing to root. I must be delicate, otherwise its blue will leave…

  • Recording Device

    I can feel the beat. You walking through the door. Me listening at the door. The slightly humid room you would like to escape from. The air conditioning kicks on with a sputter as you turn it down one degree at a time like a safecracker. The shirts folded where you left them: in the…

  • Correlation

    To start with salt is the explanation I heard in history class. Salt builds civilizations. But I reckoned this with the kitchen table. And how often the hand came down next to the shaker.

  • Long Walk

    Regulate my temerity, but lust for the bastions, where roses and a deep sigh wait. Beekeeping myself against waxed rows and granular helpings of pine-scented lips. Retire this feeling beneath the decking boards and the sunlight relish, that lift my shoulders beyond where I knew they could be. Shanks and beatitude for the trees and…

  • Cacophony of Pain

    We stump our toe in one place and remember the way it breaks, snapping bone made brittle. No open palm stops the compressed flesh from yellowing , no kisses or tender words remainder the pain. We repeat as if it was new and not the time after the time we lost count.

  • Yes

    Catastrophe abounds when you reach behind me to touch my hair and whisper, “Shush, it’s the night and I am here to save you from yourself.” I can only see beyond the castles and trees moving with respirative awareness and think, “You are the end of me.” Your wordless presents prevent my absolution from the…