It’s been twelve years since I believed  I couldn’t kiss  girls without being struck  down by Moroni’s gold trumpet.  You told me waiting until I was eight to get baptized meant it was my own choice as if eight-year-olds can make a decision  about eternity. At the same age I was  confused when you asked […]

a day spent at the beach right after when Egrets infringe; a span of wings permeates in peripatetic nothingness; Pelagic- An adjective related to open sea seemed far more relatable to a story; gospel calling; a soliloquy; a passive surge of condolence melting in the ocean— shores are romantic lovers accepting each thing that travel […]

Catch the Wind Love is born through the absurdity of Knowing another Or rather– the endeavor of Knowing another Which remains forever unfulfilled. Perhaps that is the allure of Love– Like a hamster running on its wheel Moving nowhere in time and space Love keeps Knowing just out of arm’s reach With every step we […]

BURN When an arsonist haunted our street my lip trembled with helplessness. The first fire, a rosemary bush outside the house  of an outspoken neighbor big white beard and pot-bellied,  picture a grizzled Santa Claus. The first time we spoke he told me about  the ex-son-in-law he almost murdered, beating him  and driving his car […]

Plum I notice her purple nails  maybe aubergine, not dark enough  to be eggplant.  The color of lavender-soaked fig. We spend our time together cleaning other people’s houses,  rooms with violet walls that, if they could speak, would confess  all the times I’ve wanted to beg for her.  I want to tell her  she is the […]

My grandmother was a great cook. Because of that, a crumple of tinfoil in the freezer holds the last thing I have from her hands. Her cheese borag recipe: She stopped putting parsley in them when my dad stopped  liking green—one of those sacred traditions that only changes for youngest sons; one of those simple […]

A syrupy sap that falls as your last attempt to break your knees and branch out Buds of warm teeth sprout and stick to your cracked lips Stuck in the sugar; sap gathers and melts- Over the crest of flesh.  Water flows and streams under eyelids creased.  Under harsh vowel sounds jammed in whispers.  Under […]

DEATH IN MASQUERADE I remember my aunt who lives in the Crown’s yard. Yes, that aunt—the dilettante of good manners, whose words make God’s brain careen in his skull. She is the poison in the antidote. She is death— death in masquerade. She is a relentless wraith, feeding on that which she does not possess, […]

My poem that I translated from Persian to English, written on the margins of Fernando Pessoa’s“Manipulations of Sensibility” in his book, Always Astonished: Night (شب) My heart slowly beats against the night The alleys The trees Silent. My eyes can comprehend the darkness But, I’m free And in love with the night… قلبم برابر شب می تپد کوچه ها درخت ها […]

Birds Even though oil Is said to be black gold It still spreads death Brilliantly, efficiently  Over, through, and across The waves Defying the wind Defying mother birds’  Begging. We 17 people, With very little in common Set up our 3 cleaning stations  Exactly as we did yesterday  Hoping to save, A few. Sleepless  Frederick […]