VQR Online

Earth’s Congested Inner Orbit

Cutting down Chambers St. 

my pinky toenail comes clean off.

Another little ghost 

 Despite President Trump’s fatuous protests about the “Deep State,” we seem to be in a similar place with respect to entertainment relating to the intelligence community, and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in particular.

What if each time
you caused pain
a small, round stone
was put in your pocket
pebbles for inducing
self-doubt

What happens when immigrant-rights advocates reach a breaking point?

I wish we were living
a story of desire, but
I don’t feel Odysseus 
beating out his tale
of longing at the oars

The Practice of Looking Deeply

That one smelled 
like a Bradford pear 
you said. 

Reney’s bones can feel a fight long before the rest of her wakes to the rising voices and clattering bottles. She is eight, almost nine. Granny and Lula live in a new rent house across the tracks and down a long hill, not so very far. Over...

St. Stephen’s Day: home unsettled, 
a rupture, and here the ruched 
branch has turned itself outward,

its soft, bright innards held up 
along the path. At first, a golden