Most in-love-with-the-mountains people I have ever met.
Play in the woods? In one breath she’ll quote Chief Seattle
Navy-blue parka since time immemorial
Smooth and slow and in sync
Frontman in a blues ensemble.
Never been one to bite her tongue.

A spectral flying figure forbidden
Don’t ask your rivers and lakes to make money
“They lie too much.”
Forced to acknowledge modern realities.
Permissiveness Paradise seems deficient.
Paradise and how to survive it.

Preserving its cultish mystique.
Kyle the Stockbroker, and Chick the Tree God.
A distinct rime line snaking its way across.
Only tiny beads of light made it to a birch in a small clearing
DANGER! A rock surprise on the downhill face
Jaundiced ice stretches the entire way across a natural tollbooth.

White birches descend without using a rope.
Failed visualization wouldn’t necessarily spell disaster.
Thudded to earth. My giddiness
A whirling jig rock outcroppings and tree stumps
An uncut swath, and silently went
The kaleidoscope of shadow and light.

-Bill in Richmond (search phrase “Emboldened Rock Outcroppings”)

The Umbrella Opened

The umbrella opened:
The whole of the body
Illuminated, my spirits rose,
I shone.
It wasn’t even raining,
A wet patch
On the fountain.
Supernatural light
Perfectly infused.
The umbrella lay
Unfastened and dainty
On the sun ledge.

Suzanne in Richmond (search phrase “the umbrella opened”)

The Last Time I Saw My Phalanges…

The last time I saw her
Crying and shitting
amongst a phalanx of empty beer bottles…

There wasn’t enough time.

You have every right to be upset with me.
I acted selfishly,
breaking bread with my enemy and
ruminating the distinctive sound;

I apologize.

The alarm of this last night
has me frightened
to death.

-from a student in the VCU English Department