Piltdown Man   I was seven when the Piltdown Man was shown to be a hoax It was talked about at school and by many book-learned folks.   Biology teachers were incensed by the dishonesty I didn’t notice that, I was charmed by the audacity   The fooling of everyone, experts in particular Arguments, the […]

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Apprenticeship My father saw, by chance, in a shop window, a chest of drawers he’d made as an apprentice cabinet maker, in a trade he’d long ago put behind him; he didn’t buy it, and was puzzled by my interest; I got some idea of how deeply he detested his history. Understanding (Re T. J. […]

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Surfers Glass towers                            Nearby people                         And the waves beside the sea.                         stand in waist                          rise up Yellow sand                            deep water                              like towers where no plants                       and all face                              of glass grow: stripped                         in the same                              then topple bodies lie                                 direction,                                 over the […]

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  Christian Otto’s organ tribute to Liszt 200 years after birth   from a throne high on the eastern wall organ pipes, aligned like cigars in a presentation box, point The Way   their gashed gold mouths are dry ’til bellows once pumped by sweat-soaked hands blow sonorous breaths that tremble in our ears   […]

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  A glance becomes a look at something small and dark that is at odds with the white wallboard ceiling.   A claw, black and intricate, pokes through, the legs and leathery body concealed above.   In the crawl space a lizard pair and their young spend silent winters among wool bat bits and leaves […]

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Flat out in a four star pool hot sun sparks cool water. Slow hands scull. High rise eyes blink or stare. If windows to the soul this glass reflects no depth. A skyscraper wears a concrete collar with a green-growth fringe but my mind shifts and I’m adrift in an old inner tube, cocooned by […]

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St Serapion, I wrap myself in the robes of your whiteness which is like midnight in Dostoevsky.                —Frank O’Hara, Meditations in an Emergency 1. And you loiter in the folds of his drapes—in that space between light and dark, where grey has a spectrum all its own—and you whisper. But I can’t quite […]

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I could use a walk down Hope Road now there’s nothing left to say: Since you said you didn’t love me and then we called it a day. Still I’m very glad it’s over, as we didn’t have much fun— I could use a walk down Hope Road, now that all is said and done. […]

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i. The Pig She has parked herself in the intersection of tracks under coconut palms. She looks about the size of a VW beetle if you allow a little exaggeration. When she walks, her belly waggles between her legs. From below, she looks well-used; but her back and sides have the black curve of a […]

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On 18 June 2010 Ronnie Lee Gardner was executed by a volunteer firing squad in Utah State Prison Not often you get a chance to kill a man No strings attached that is The opportunity of a lifetime Five volunteers make-up the party Names stay secret to keep wackos at bay We shoot from behind […]

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