Tapering Off I was one of the travelersdrinking wine mixed with water,piling herbs on hot stonesinhaling until I heard sirens—how a failed prophet climbsa mountain, tells the scattering birdsthat G…

by Brandon Shane “After a drunk night emailing / a close friend / I learned there was a dead / Japanese poet / among the plum blossoms / named Nishiyama Sōin…”

by Brandon Shane “I touch his cheek, / and he emerges after a decade / consuming the roots of his daydreams…”

I tell her, it pays nothing, and the degrees are expensive, success may as well be stories you tell at campfires, and that even the great artists just end...

Natural Chime A warm day– and my dog is playing fetchwith the ghosts of our buried friends;gusts from the mountain top returnwith poppy seeds and hints of rain,and we sit on the patio,remembe…