MR. HUGHES When I was a boy, four or five, Mr. and Mrs. Hughes lived next door. Their house was half the size of ours, Ours barely big enough for four. Mr. Hughes would sit on his stoop most of…

NOISE Motorcycles, leaf blowers, Music blasting at partygoers. TVs blare every damned where. It’s all the equivalent of audio glare. Jackhammers hammer, Airheads yammer while the angry clamor. Sirens scream. How can anyone pray or dream? Yet our civilized noise…

REASSEMBLE ME My parts are out of whack, So many pieces that I lack. Because you don’t resemble me Perhaps you can reassemble me. My bones were shot and shattered My limbs lopped off and scattered. It’s uncertain as to…

THE LAST LOVE SONG The white ceiling never looked so black, As I lie here still, flat on my back. A stick in my wrist and a tube in my nose, As the doctor comes in I hear the door…