VQR Online

Ancestral or learned, such threats, 
   tonight’s charry staircase of heaven—
crash, storming, splitting flicker shards,

As Álvaro wandered the sweeping courtyard of his hotel, a colonial relic that had been renovated with a pool in preparation for the imminent wave of tourists, he had no choice but to accept the matter for what it was. The situation was...

I was sitting at a banquet table before the awards ceremony. 
A distinguished character actor, who narrated the PBS documentary
I saw last night, entered the banquet hall in a white jacket.

A Black Family History

the belief was eels were male catfish,
believe if you leave a fried one alone 
return to red-raw meat, or a trickle 
trail of blood and crumb, a resurrection

“Up!” she signals, syllabic cup
     meaning wherever I am now—up
or down—floor, high chair—change direction!—

Sometime before I turned twenty, I was saved twice from dying. Neither time was by my design or choice.

It follows you everywhere,
I think, even this hillside
of mint and yellow gorse
on the far side of the sea,

I live in rural Scotland, in a village of sixty-five houses, with no cell service or shops. There is a kirk, a pub; there are more sheep than people. For the first time in my life, I have a garden. A garden with more square footage than my...

the lake becomes a ghost. i decide
to lie down in its place. for comfort,
i polish its bed smooth, quilt a pallet