When Asked to Describe Gary “In Your Own Words”
"I get to say that I’m from here."
In Detroit
"In Detroit we are always planting trees."
Minneapolis, Revisited
"They said the city was a testament to liberal pragmatism. They said that the gaunt-eyed brown children of the borderless had ruined it."
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"