Ephemera: Poems

In Ephemera, winged creatures elegize and celebrate the beauty of evanescence simultaneously. The poems speak to the ambivalence of coming of age beset by the daily trials of chronic illness as viewed through the lens of femininity and love in the confessional tradition.

Odysseus

Difficult to divine how you arrived,
not water-doused or mail-slotted to me,
but whole in your stone-centered gaze, almost
tired out by your ninety days under stars.
Satisfied by none, you chose me to be
your canary, waiting, green with hope for

your return. Coming home from the back-woods,
you made me into your mooring, fashioned
yourself into a pilgrim to my bed's
unmade shrine. I'll make a Ulysses out
of you yet. Yes, the butterfly kind, blue
body mild as the Aegean, crushing.

I will weave our dreams together: never
go back to sea without me as your mate.