3am wakes me—
A/C cycled off,
sheets flipped to the floor.
Pillow warm at my neck,
a last, rattling chip of ice remaining,
I stretch for a sip of watery whisky.
Anxieties of a red wall nightmare
squeeze my breath.
I scribble out a dream of jury trials,
the prankish, jeering retribution of
Joshua upon Achan.
Rolling off the mattress, I take
dizzy steps towards creaking windows.
Drought long forgotten,
the week starts with rain.
Cracking blinds, I squint to see
a bleary shimmer of light and lightning,
water’s spatter on the stairwell.
Hours left before labor’s call,
I fall back to bed, drowse above the covers.
This squall wearies the swampy grounds,
leaving me silenced in its passage.
My work has appeared in In Between Hangovers, Your One Phone Call, Roanoke Review, Comstock Review, Green Mountains Review, Santa Fe Literary Review and The Alembic, among other journals.
I am a co-founder of the Flying Dutchman Writers Troupe, co-editor/publisher of the poetry magazine Curbside Review, an assistant editor for Lily Poetry Review and Ardent. I was a 2014 Pushcart Prize nominee. My work has been featured in the anthologies Travois-An Anthology of Texas Poetry, TimeSlice and The Weight of Addition. My chapbook, Arriving At The Riverside, was published by Finishing Line Press in January, 2010. An e-book, Dialogue and Appetite, was published by Right Hand Pointing in May, 2011.
In Between Hangovers 