On My Cherry Wood Coffee Table

For Krisie 

a stalk of artichoke stands in a clear vase 
filled just below halfway 
cold water 
paired with sprigs of eucalyptus 

I stare 
       and stare 
               and stare 

waiting for the face of some god to speak from it 
to say, it’s alright darling 

the vase sits on this table I’ve attempted to 
refurbish once before 

to cover the deep, nervous nail marks of my childhood dog 
as she pressed her holy-spirited paws against 
the old-tree-made-table-made-piece-of-home 
to find me 

clawing her way through 
the glossy cherry finish 

I do this too 
        now 
clawing closer to forgiveness

Rabbit Poem

When rabbits appeared 
in a sample of printed tapestry
I knew he had come to visit.

I tore their prints from glossy pages
and patched them
onto paper to save the moment.
Ode to honor love lost.  

Before he died he chased a jackrabbit
not one ounce of care in the world
his only concern to sink his teeth into fresh fur
to run away from me and into the woods.
My wild canine son.

Since he died, I haven’t gone to the woods.
Maybe I’ll find him there:
a collection of fur from small animals 
him living amongst the blue, soft soil.
My love a constant wind
keeping him warm at night.

The Greatest Brute is Grief 

In a steaming cup of her favorite earl gray
sister was 
she is past tense

the iridescent sun on a cold beach
brings me back to that scent
before the end of her time
before the bergamot and calamity 
of losing 

lead to anguish pouring itself onto the roots
of Glass Beach trees
a sadness incomprehensible 
even in the air of salted waves 
which otherwise bring redemption

It will take years of undoing 
this     weight
this     composition of tender bones
this    freezing in the peripheral of ocean views 
this     worry of unsettling heights

I hold my palms together
aim head high yet prayer 
recedes into the undergrowth 
never to return with her person

I can’t learn to undo this 
I walk backwards into the waves 
don’t watch me disappear