I can’t get enough of endings last phone calls & letters friends I’ll never converse with again fixed places in my memory’s strong box newness never interferes until white invites me in expected snow, her scenery soft green boughs shift with the weight of her water a plane’s engine churns overhead my husband says, “Oh […]

Want Is Loud*  by Nancy Schatz Alton “It’s good to want. It builds character.” Ben Bauermeister I’ve come here from want—the blue stone pulsing in bright yellow light. I’ve come here from hills that I now call slopes, from anger and love, fear & sweetness, from every emotion you can name, and I’ve come here […]

I want to be the slight hill in my parent’s backyard whispering, “sit.” Then: “Lay down.” Tip your head back. Sea clouds of other worlds drifting by. Fall up into the dying stars. Sink into the stratosphere The moon’s rays cut the grass. The big dipper as real as cheddar cheese cut in squares above […]