Powerful, Sydney.
A Poem

I
unravel
the last piece
of tinsel from the
tree, but it catches
on my anxiety, winds down
through breakable ornaments
and bad memories, tangling
impressions of family gatherings,
tightening the roar in my ears as I’m
grabbing my children to stop them from
wrecking a relative’s pristine house of glass vases,
shiny baubles and everything…
Poem

The first bones of winter
stare at me in the naked forest
Fallen trees scatter my trail
watched by complacent pines
still upright in their fitted skulls of snow
Branches freeze in mid-reach for my touch
They don’t know I, too, am cold
My head wilted by guilt, I walk faster…
A poem

Tell me your mind
in the silent conversation
that takes shape
across our chessboard
Tell me the sweetness
of danger between us
when I fork
your exposed pieces
Tell me the thrill
running up your spine
when you move
and I pin you between us
Tell me in en passant
without…