Table of Contents
Chasing Utopia 1
A Short Essay Affirming Why 4
If a Lemon 6
Podcast for Bicycles 7
Why I Wrote The Grasshopper's Song 9
My Sister and Me 13
Spices 14
The Other Place 16
The Lioness Circles Her Brood in New Orleans 17
The Right Way 19
Spring Blooms 20
The International Open 21
The Giggle Bank 22
Kick Stretch Kick 26
Mrs. Scott 27
Where Did the Night Go 29
It's Just Love 30
Still Life with Apron 32
One Thing 34
And Everyone Will Answer 35
Day Pass to Heaven 41
My Dream 42
Artichoke Soup 43
On Knoxville, TN 44
Affirming My Birth Date 45
The American Vision of Abraham Lincoln 48
I Am at That Point 51
I Hate Mondays 52
A Song for a Blackbird 53
Icarus 54
When the Girl Became a Poet 56
When God Made Mountains 59
These Women 62
Cooking with Mommy 65
What the Fly on the Wall Overheard 68
Fear: Eat In or Take Out? 70
Biscuits: Dropped or Baked 72
Poets 74
For Mark Dressman 75
Postcards 77
In Defense of Flowers 78
Werewolf Avoidance 80
Exercise 81
I Communicate 82
The Lone Ranger Rides the Lonesome Trail Again 83
For Runaway Slaves 85
My Diet 86
Nickels for Nina 87
Blues for Roanoke 89
The Spotlight in the Sky 91
The Spider Waltz 92
I Wish I Could Live (in a Book) 93
I Wish I Could Live (in Music) 95
I Wish I Could Live (in a Painting) 97
Don Pullen 99
Making a Perfect Man 101
When My Phone Trembles 104
Still Life with Crying Girl 105
Robert Champion 107
Allowables 109
Flying in Kigali 110
Terezin 112
To the Lion Who Discovered a Deer in His Habitat: Give Him Ketchup! 114
The Significance of Poetry 116
Note to the South: You Lost 117
The Golden Shovel Poem 119
Morgantown, WVA 120
For Sonia Sanchez 121
For Haki Madhubuti 123
Our Job Safety Is Your Priority with Coffee 125
The Brown Bookshelf 129
Interior Vision 131
I Give Easily 133
People Who Live Alone 134
Before You Jump 135
You Gave Her Something 137
Thirst 139
The Scared and the Vulnerable 141
Author's Note 143
