Selected Publications
Palm Reading
Hold out your hand.
Tangled green lines edge the field of your palm.
I will not say the lifeline is a stone fence
whose walls fall softly
since I have learned to trust the fleshy hills
only as far as my fingers climb.
My customers usually distrust the false spring,
demand colder weather.
For those, I find a field plowed too late
or a seed already dead.
They carry these small disasters
home in the afternoons.
Close your fist around payment and the future folds.
This I will say for nothing:
remembering is a shuttered house where children sleep.
Even light has left the landscape.
Behind your hands are white forests,
the branches tap your face.
Memoir | Essay | Poetry
Drowning in Debris
A Daughter Faces Her Mother's Hoarding (March/April 2023)
Palm Reading
Poem published by The Night Heron Barks (2023)
Churn
”Churn” is a lyrical essay about the discovery and cleanup of my mother's hoarding house (December, 2021)
What We Hold On To
This chapter from my memoir appeared in The Woven Tale Press (June, 2022)
A Tale of Two Primates
The “Menagerie” series explored strange and diverse ways the human and animal worlds intersect (October 26, 2014)
Taking a Step Forward
The difficult dance of marriage and the struggle to connect during infertility treatment are the topics of a humorous “Modern Love” (December 15, 2011)
After Nothing
A poem inspired by a news story about a kidnapped girl (Fall 2008).
Why We Needed a Prenup with Our Contractor
How do some home renovation contractors behave like bad boyfriends? In a funny “Modern Love” essay, you'll find out. (October 28, 2007)
Pivot
This poetic essay journeys through grief and my work with clients who are dying (2006)
Barren
Coming to terms with a lost dream is the theme of this essay (2002)