September, 2011

The Weight It Takes

From the Post and Courier. For Nikki Randhawa Haley, on the Occasion of her inauguration as Governor of South Carolina. In the white silence…

Charleston Rooftops

Everything that lifts into the air has purpose: even the granite tipped war monument rising above palmetto trees points like an arrow toward the…

Nothing Can Contain You

From The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature. In memory of David Hilderbrand. Not the wreath woven from fresh flowers, nor the photograph it…

Geography of Home

From The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature. Sudden winter rain a need like night camellias that morning startling a thing remembered how we…

Pine Pitch

From The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature. For Jerry Smith. Clustered around the edges of my father’s open grave, the grown-ups lean into…

The Way It Should Be

From Poemeleon. After a photograph by Lauren Preller Things shouldn’t have turned turn out this way. When her husband was still alive they would…

Spagetti

From the Cortland Review Aunt Barbara was a beauty queen. Competing in the Miss America Pageant and riding on top of floats in holiday parades…