Prospective Route

I can point to you on the map
winding in and out of streets named for past presidents and plants and birds and states.
I always thought street names were important: Ulysses Avenue or Ladybug Loop or Grand Boulevard are by design reassuring -
there is something architecturally sound about the way they sound.
Every day on my drive home I overlook the interstate during rush hour. I skip flat stones of relief across the current
of stalled folks on their way to somewhere, strangely thankful to be
just another car in a line of cars in a city of too many cars (we're all just waiting to crash into each other).
I like to map out where you are and link boulevards and avenues to numbers and houses
and all the fixtures of love and its affairs.

Heart Swell

It floors me the way limbs depict



lines of strength and (vulnerability)



and grace. And grace,



how are you so physical?



How can you s t r e t c h tendons



and rip muscle/tissue like paper?



You are an artist of injury.



My heart swells at the sight of such thought-



ful negative space

and so much flesh.

Riddle Me This

Written in conjuction with C.B.T. and E.R.K.

*If a tree falls in a forest and no one's there to see it, did it still fall?
*If it's not the 4th of July and the corn is knee high, what year is it?
*If you can't read a sign, what does it say?
*If Sarah is crouched in the baby swing, how many adult swings are available?
*If you are in St. Peter but the clinic sign says Mankato, where are you?
*Why would anyone book a direct flight to the Mankato Regional Airport?
*If the fire hydrants are orange, should you assume the city has colors?
*If you are in the car and someone exclaims "Oh! Rigor mortis!" what position is the roadkill in?
*If you drive past Moses Sheep Farm and you don't see any sheep, what kind of farm is it?
*Are birds necessarily sober?