The time will come when with elation
you will greet yourself at your own arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other’s welcome
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was yourself.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, the stranger who has […]

as i sat and clicked in the turn lane,
a funeral procession trudged by,
all grim headlights, wipers flinging the rain,
and i thought: someday,
at some family reunion, egg salad and matching shirts,
they’ll look back on this day; they’ll say,
remember sweet uncle’s funeral?
whew! i’ll never forget that day—
the gusts that blew our coats open,
whipped our legs with […]

it was also a wednesday
when the last remnant of him in the whole world arrived.
the rest has ground into gulf-coast clay,
sparkled the surface of a lapping pond,
lilted above a pigtailed girl high on the swings.
i am flesh of his flesh;
to my flesh he returned
wedged on a truck
between parcels of Extreme Elmo
and jolly plump citrus.
like the […]

[another “stafford poem.” See here for explanation]
for dad
on january 28, 2003,
i folded down a corner of the secret garden
and placed it atop a stack of books, way too optimistically tall
for the fortieth week,
and i turned toward the door to my husband’s ashen face—
i turned toward the door, the door, the door beyond which
there be dragons, […]

after reading donald hall’s “last days”
after the poet closed Jane’s round brown eyes,
the reader closed the book,
rolled away from the light,
pushed her face into his bare back,
and breathed until her vision clouded.
though the skin grew clammy with each puff,
it remained warm, a miracle.

Nobody knew,
that sunny December breakfast in our home
was our last supper with you:
scrambled eggs pulled, runny, off the stove,
they popped and sizzled on the way to our plates;
biscuits, dropped by careful spoonfuls
onto a sheet of parchment,
then drenched with honey and jam;
and clementine oranges.
You praised the way they peeled,
so easy, no mess,
and I felt a child’s […]

what the fucking fuck is up with the world and our weapons-choked so-called “culture” that some sick bastard has to kill not only his sad mentally ill self but has to fucking take as many people with him as possible and this isn’t even an isolated incident this WEEK let alone this year and where […]

somewhere between skim milk and applesauce
i remember:
i buy the cards.
i turn stuttering wheels on a cart filled
with groceries and girls
that wilt as they wait for me
to choose.
i hurry, because after four errands,
the clock is ticking on our patience,
the pin pulled from the grenade
and discarded somewhere between the gas pump
and the recycling bin.
i scan the rack, […]

Our weekend
We had a wonderful weekend. Saturday we went to the National Arboretum which is amazing and huge. Sunday I actually did yardwork! And enjoyed it! That’s how nice the weather has been.
We have hit upon a very nice rhythm to the weekend:
-Friday night is family night. We will often eat something quick and easy […]

Ten thousand saw I at a glance
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
…Until their blooms go grey.
Shriveled on fat green stalks, they
hang their heads low to lament
other blossoms who have lost their spring flush.
I pry them off, snap, snap,
on my way from somewhere to somewhere.
What are you doing? she wants to know.
Trimming off the dead […]

Great News
I heard this week that I was accepted to the writing workshop at Downtown Cathedral. Praise God from whom all blessings flow! I am absolutely thrilled. Now I get to figure out how it’s going to work, but after getting to know baby M over the last month I believe it’s possible, somehow. Of […]

Yesterday after my aunt’s memorial service I checked my cell phone messages. Before playing the new message, my phone plays any old messages that are about to be erased. I heard a message from a spiritual godmother of mine who had called the day my aunt entered hospice care. Her message radiated with love and […]

A perfectly round midsection appeared on the black and white screen, and the ultrasound technician measured it. With a few buttons and mouse clicks she threw a dotted circle around it like a lasso. Organs swam in and out of view. Kidneys… stomach… And then: “It’s a girl!” The announcement came like a shot, and […]

I am back. It was good to be with family. We had a reunion of sorts, which my aunt seemed to get a kick out of in a very quiet and reserved way. She had quite a good weekend physically, with lots of visitors, and I half expect to get a call in the next […]

Several months ago, a 22-year-old woman died while driving drunk near our house, on a busy street that snakes through a patch of woods. I drive that road to work every day, so I see the makeshift memorial her family put together.
I.
you are remarkably sober
as you assemble what you need,
a strange array of supplies:
glue, feathers, […]

…posted a sermon, that is. Why not.
A Sermon for Maundy Thursday
John 13:1-15, 31b-35
Maundy Thursday is a difficult day to preach. It is often difficult to get the tone just right. On the one hand, Jesus’ last supper with the disciples is a joyful yet reverent Passover meal, a retelling of the story of God’s faithfulness […]

mourning snowfall
will it be every year
around This Time
that the grief floats down,
soft and insistent,
gripping every waiting surface
with unseen crystalline claws,
accumulating in fresh heaps
for all the world to see?
i fall down into its stinging embrace,
flail about,
and look for the imprint of an angel
to guide me onward.
for dad, 5/14/47 - 1/28/03