FRAY You find something. You think of yourself as prepared but you never knew exactly what for until now. You realize it when you brush yourself off, wiping hands on knees and saying something like ‘golly.’ You’ve only seen perfectly coiffed and it makes a lasting impression. You caught a glimpse ofrough edges and it fascinates you in a way you’d never anticipated. GARNISH There was a day several years ago when you picked up the phone and began frantically dialing numbers bec

1. No accidents 2. No alcohol 3. No asking 4. No bonding 5. No commiserating 6. No details 7. No difference 8. No flexibility 9. No gifts 10. No history 11. No knowing 12. No knowledge 13. No leaning 14. No love 15. No luck 16. No needing 17. No past 18. No perfect 19. No picking 20. No please 21. No prying 22. No regression 23. No reward 24. No shabbat 25. No sharing 26. No static 27. No texting 28. No waiting 29. No want 30. No winning 30. No wish 31. No wonder 32. No words

I subtracted truth to found eyes, blurred, or blurry, a feigned protest. A sum. Skin covered in fever, she says she’ll wear that or ink, if you’re really blue. That’s what mourners do. When it breaks, you’ll see how perfect it looks in the light. Abstraction unfolds. The iris transparent. Dreams well up and eye risk. A way of thinking in our hemispheric planes. Holding trust inside, you can lumber around the eight ball. Fashion me a sight, not past or present. Proclaim nothin

4 ème- She sat on the steps to Agudath Hakehilot in the Marais. I was coming to meet her for lunch and she waved with her black mittens when she saw me round the corner off Rue des Rosiers. It’s unseasonably cold for January and she told me she’s sweating on the inside. We discussed where we should eat and she tapped her toe to the sound of woodwind instruments. There is a parade nearby and we cannot hear each other speaking. I leaned my head against hers so I could arrange t

impermanence all around you say like you’ve bought a round of drinks for friends at a party in your honor. Connect the new faces at dinner with insecurity and unrehearsed prayers, chanted quietly in mixed verse. Thirty six is the number of years you’ve traversed roads that ultimately end in a series of sloppy victories headed towards the drain of success and nerdy black eyeglasses that keep you there amongst the bottom-dwellers. I damage the image belle of the isle now flitt

i hear clanging in my ear failing ding me, claim me it’s seize the space I’m in I say hide with crickets in thickets I say zest your fancy dishes with all things orange and the rubbery lovechild produced as a result of the kerfuffle with steel and dairy products you listen to thunderous clouds if I am sitting Shiva if you are salty tears drown out the droning of the deep resounding emptiness a half-hearted heart cured if alcohol yelled quietly amongst its peers if gifts and

I’d love to steal one of your brother’s vintage cars and go for a spin. If I said come with me, we could be re-fashioning old, fearful things, like what people say if you mark me as your theft, or pay allegiance to my mouth by placing yours on mine. This topless bikini and your myopia keep missing the positive consequence of togetherness. I am used to a place made of fences and lemon groves and cowboy boots made for kicking things out of the way like these feelings we share,