These words are insects, a class below the kingdom of Mammalia, troublesome gnats. One word alone is no threat, but a swarm of syllables abuzz with rumor leaves welts on friable egos, stings the body politic, an itch we scratch till we’re raw. Swatting and swearing gets us no relief. I want a flyswatter big…

What grows up, eventually falls down. The body, being humanmade, has no warranty, needs soft packaging, and wants frequent refueling. The body’s moving parts work well enough on flat surfaces, and all its parts move, but a body in motion will not stay in motion; sleep demands the user be out of body, prey to…

Black lady in the sink– every day I must decide to kill you or let you live. I drape a length of toilet paper over the edge of our trap, a path to lead you out of that white enamel desert. You ignore that road to freedom until I turn my back and in the…

Words, wild and domestic make me their natural habitat, a ruby throated hummingbird and Grandma’s bleating goat, its newest kid born at midnight, and a black rabbit named George, who walked on a leash, and oh, our geese who daily assaulted my mother, a woman with secrets. We should have heeded those birds. On safari…

But I could not bring home Salvadori, our tour guide in Rome, nor a water taxi in Venice, nor coffee at the Cafe Florian amidst new college graduates wearing laurel wreaths for hats in Piazza San Marco. And sorry, but I left behind me the bright colors of houses on Burano, as well as the…