The Heart of the Mango
There are certain experiences that cleave one’s existence into two, whereas the person who walks away is a shade different than the one who woke up that morning. Some of these are anticipated rites of passage—the first day of school, the first kiss, first night away from home. Others are completely unexpected, and shocking to…
Read MoreBaptism
1. Giovanni and I meet for the second time in monthsto baptize our daughter, who led my attentionfrom him to the metal birth table,then lay shrieking as light lapped over her,seeped into her mouth, past her closedeyelids. You are the one. 2. In ’79, they’d reserve a church for one,but Cecilia’s one of four today.…
Read MoreThe Sisterhood
Take a deep breath. Call out all their names at once, SusiePattyBettyJoNancy! Listen for the clatter of screen door, the scuff and stomp of little-girl feet. Watch the knot of them tumble in together as if attached—four nuclei surrounded by one cell wall. Guess their adventure by the scent clinging to their coats: licorice—a knock…
Read MoreWhat Father Brought Home
Tiny porcelain cups. Hot sake,Mother said. She nested a cupin my palm, poured in warm water.The marble at the bottom cleared toa woman’s dark eyes, mouth, hair. My dreams of three women in silk robespainted with lilies, swans. Kimonos,Mother said. Heads sag, they raisetheir hands to shield their eyelids,melting cheek skins, lips. The word, Nagasaki.…
Read MoreOur Lady of the Carpeted Stairs
An excerpt from Queen of the Fall: A Memoir of Girls and Goddesses (University of Nebraska Press, 2015). I’m not the one who placed the Virgin outside the priest’s office. But when he stood by my side and said I’m onto you with a wink, I went along with it. I’d long ago acquired the habit of…
Read MoreTwo Poems
Girl Becomes Ghost I could not convince other childrenI existed. I was a specter who punted the ball only a few feet as if a strong wind moved it.When I sang in the classroom, the teacher thought my voice another girl’s, even if I belted notes.When I grew older and a man claimed my words…
Read MoreCamp Soar
Between my wife and I are ten campers in their cots. Each has Down Syndrome. Each is restless from the storm. When the cabin rumbles from the thunder several miles off, two of the children bolt up. The one closest to me is stock-still, his eyes locked on the plywood roof, his chest heaving from…
Read MoreTwo Poems: Window Seats; The Night’s Still Surface
Window Seats For one full day and a portion of two,we sat within that window seat watching a catbird leap from willow branch to ground,and back again, lost inside the netting of newly-knotted buds. The glass that madethe panes was warped in time’s slow rippling, and scattered thin spring light across your room,and the paperwhites…
Read MoreHere There Be Snakes
My two boys darted ahead, chasing each other in circles as we followed the aging concrete path from Minneopa Falls back to the parking lot. “C’mon guys,” I begged for the fourteenth time. “Try to stay by the picnic tables. You’re way too close to the edge.” Winston and Ellet moved closer to the thin…
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