October 2025

Remember how you didn’t fall yesterday
even though you thought you would?
Life can be like that all the time if you
let it. Remember all the balance beams
and the room full of stuffed animals
at the children’s hospital? How scary it
was and always dark? It was meant
to be comforting but you knew better
and survived it. That gauntlet of …

do you remember in fifth grade
when i was all of eighty pounds
soaking wet and fully clothed
i told you there was a boy on the bus
twice my size and three grades ahead
he liked to throw his weight every which way
and i had little to no weight to throw back
with all the reasons to get out of his path
you sent me back to that narrow aisle…

TRUTH
BE TOLD: I FUCKED UP

WITH TEETH. WHALES
THE ONLY ONES

I GOT RIGHT. & EVEN
THEN, ONLY SOME. I

DON’T KNOW WHY THEY’RE CRYING
—BECAUSE THEY ARE

—CRYING—THAT’S WHAT AN OCEAN IS MADE OF.

 SHARKS LOSE TWENTY THOUSAND TEETH
 IN THEIR LIFETIME. I ONLY LOOSED

 TWO THOUSAND STARS IN THE SKY. MAYBE IF I TOSSED
 EVERY TOOTH INTO THE VACUUM OF SPACE…