“This Thursday you’ll have a substitute,” The teacher wrote—Pam Ederhuller, Previously a general practitioner.

It howled like a person,
It howled when it stopped.

Somebody’s shroud is in a twist

See also: TIMELINESS/UNTIMELINESS.

The great blue heron’s tinctured swerve
fires its yellow bill with the trout's alloy.
Why in place of nature cure

The room was airless and damp,
the sheets a skin of sweat.
The greasy feather pillow
curled like a postage stamp.

First appear the tiniest islands, crumbs
brushed off the mainland, each
outlined in china white, as if by a child.

She was her own celestial city now.
The ravens and the crows in residence
were fallen angels of the picket fence.

Once upon a time, began the old tale,
and that's how we knew it was a tale. Shackleton's
fare-thee-well voyage, ship marooned in ice

The blonde unlocks
her daddy’s Firebird,
blood-red as a tropical fish.