Staring out the window as trees and wind play Martha Graham
Sauntering the neighborhood as plums fall from a neighbor's tree
and what does it matter if I begin every line with a gerund?

Families, they f*$( you up. you know the poet, and the Granta issue
Why poetry? These comfort me.

Too much time with family
they look like me and we have history
and pathology in common

My Mom is gone and my rhythm is jangled
no matter how terribly we danced together

School year beginning I arise and soon
will go now into classrooms
my friend says she feels privileged
to work in this system she opposes

and I admire those who meta-think
and those whose arithmetical mode
is to add themselves to the equation
and I want to go on a vacation