You Be the Judge

O merriest, wiliest, and holiest of harlots! ~ Edward IV

The poet works the room the way she works words
while her students lead thesauresed lives,
ape tropes poached from livid legends,
glean new meaning from stale and stolen selves:

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In computer science, conditional constructs are sometimes referred to as “If-Then-Else” statements: if a condition is met, then an action is performed; if the condition is not met, then an alternate action is executed.

What if I were
        to begin
                this poem with a declarative?

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after Helen Hunt Jackson’s “November”

This is the beguiling month when
autumn days betray my summer lusts,
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for Dawn Thompson

There is only one rule
of any real value
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Mrs. Butterworth stands on the windowsill
of the Christianson Ranch shack, whose door
stands agape with the hasp-screws rotted out.
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Forty years down our wilderness path,
neither I nor you recall the genesis.
All we know is our tweenaged selves
standing in shame before your holy father
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A poem maketh not the sun to rise,
    Obscureth not the wayward path at dusk—
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for Joshua Dodds

He speaks in a voice with eyes:
eyes that hear,
an ear that touches,
a hand that reaches around your heart
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Truth is necessarily loved in such a way that those who love something else—besides her—wish that other thing to be truth. Continue reading →