Alternate Ending
"In this version no one has to wear a wig to senior prom/because of chemo. No one’s car is set on fire."
Fragmentos de Niña Codiciosa
"Does land have a memory?"
No Room for the Elbow Room
"Okay, radical honesty:/The Elbow Room probably wasn’t the greatest bar in the history of bars"
Caucus Night
"We went last night to stand and/be counted at the high school/gymnasium."
Things My Father Knew in Winter
He says, it was near midnight, a cargo run/on second shift--from Indy to some hamlet flung
Return to Boomtowns
"This is your Gary, where hands grab at homecoming:/brown soldiers, sizzling streets, airwaves thick from a Motor City."
Con Amor Por Southwest Detroit
Volver, Volver//These spaces still hold your treasures,these pieces y cosas/that I can no longer hold in my hand
Edith Farnsworth’s House
"Each season she arrived, / steering her car through uncut grasses / against the wishes / of the imposing architect"
Crossing in Miller (1889)
"a man stands, balancing, // one foot on one line and the other on another, touching the pulse / of two emergent powers"
2014
"Yes, I have been here before / On the threshold of justice’s door / Half a century ago / In Selma, Oxford, / And Birmingham." [From "The St. Louis Anthology"]
Cleaving
"I unfold my maps and trace my finger / across searching for the most authentic-looking / ruins."
Elegy for Bridge 9340
"Steel trusses & gusset plates gave way:/Splintered concrete bones, somersaults//Of beams"