Glenda the Good Witch at the Craps Table
There are no more brooms to burn.
No more truncated truces.
Stormy Weather
A storm begins as a harmless patter, a shuffle on the pavement, an occasional trip-trap coming down at the same tempo, target practice increasing in accuracy until its velocity becomes more insistent, a spring downpour, the ahhing of earth absorbing moisture, then rain plays a trick, comes down in lashes, a punishment for hours and […]
William Dickey’s Desk
An oak roll-top with a locking lever
to keep out snoops,
antique with a brass plate
from George H. Fuller in San Francisco–
Judge Judy
See My Books He planted daffodils, tea roses, peonies, morning glories to climb higher deities— bricks, along the fence, surrounding the pole near begonias, the shed. I sit on a bag of Miracle-Gro stuck between canna stalks and calla lilies, hear a woodpecker on a Smith Corona, go back inside to grab a cold cola: […]
Two Places Now Available for Purchase
“Lenore Weiss’ psychic linguistic engagement borders on the transcendent, the mystical and familiar.”
–Sharon Doubiago, author and member, PEN Oakland
Sisters
For years I didn’t like either one of you, felt I was returning the favor— the baby, an annoyance, an inconvenience, the one you dragged on the subway to go ice-skating, left me holding the railing. In a one-bedroom apartment, slept on a twin bed in the corner of the room, got up early on […]
Ten Years Later
“No limits, just edges.” –Jackson Pollack You were so fantastic, reminded me of Gene Wilder with wild eyes, green and lashed, red hair spun by Rumplestiltskin into breakers that broke at your forehead, something primeval in the way you understood the world, a Willy Wonka who spoke, but did not speak the same language as […]
Mandela Elegy
On that day in Oakland,
Every concession stand sold your t-shirt,
a silk-screened picture, fist raised
for the last leg of a world-wide tour
The 99% in Crossett, Arkansas
When you’re in the belly of the monster You don’t consider if your lipgloss is sticky Or if your hair spray is crunchy Or how Steve Jobs, if he found himself in the same situation, Would’ve connected the dots. Even when distraction and evil influence rule the day, And the EPA is scheduled to show […]
Sitting in Duck Country
Find the university police office opposite the Burger King on DeSiard. The library is down the street from the KFC, the Farmer’s Market for satsumas is tucked around the corner from the P.O., but not the one from Eudora Welty’s story, it’s the one that’s here in Monroe. Without numbers, a GPS device is worthless, […]