“It is hard to make pretty of what America makes sport.”

“I heard a wood-thrush in the dusk twirl three notes and make a star.”

I find you again at sunset tonight while clearing a fallen sugar maple from the driveway

“Artificial” makes it sound fake, he said. So the word had to go.

At night, in bed, you try to sleep but think of the sky. On a clear evening, 2000 visible stars. […]

estranged. estranged. estranged. estranged. estranged. estranged.

"Rome wasn’t built in a day, it was years of collected dreams."

I was thinking No. No, oh no. Not one more thing. I was thinking my mother, who sat rigid in the passenger seat crying, How terrible! as if we had hit a child not your front bumper,

“Make a poem that does not disturb the silence from which it came.”

The train to the city was alwayslate. I dressed in silk straps decoratedwith every seductive spell.I pricked myself to test their strength. Buta system cannot demonstrateits own consistency. I did …

A hippie girl raised on rock and roll, I came to you late, imagining myself better than anything “country.” I […]

Image: “Aftermath” by Leslie Ann Aguillard. “‘A Wife Is Responsible for Her Husband’s Success’” was written by Kris Nicole for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, July 2026, and selected as the Artist’s Ch...

"How American to want it all and still say more."

Before we really knew what pleasure was, we had aspirations of sex— in the backseat of a boyfriend’s rusted car moving past flirtation to sex.

the bros and their podcasts,the bros and their hurt;consider their cherishedFACTS DON’T CARE ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS;think of their parents,steroid-hoarse voices ontheir Sonos when all theywant is to hear...

I once was a child am a child am someone's child             not my mother's not my father's the boss       gave us special treatment treatment for…

"I consider scars always considering my brand."