Fifty miles from anywhere
the table is set with dirty napkins,
smudged wine glasses,
and twisted spoons in the branch-like hands
of men and women who arrived
by different angles and patterns.
Frank, who showed up
on a horse one day; Anna, who’s been
sleeping in Dave’s bed for years.
Dave clears off space on his kitchen table
one night each week, for anyone
who might [...]

is all wrong:
one wing outweighs the other.
You wouldn’t believe the handicaps,
the slipped disks, bad hips,
leans and limps,
one wing dragging
like a gun through mud.
Angels in rows crane their necks
to handle the weight.
They watch us move below.
Angels were never human
so they don’t understand
when a man speaks to a woman
and the woman looks away
because she is thinking in [...]

It’s morning in New Hampshire, and she wakes up J.D.
for his papers, toast and tea.
He starts with the local rag, the Union Leader.
What do you think about the gays getting married, Mr. S?
There’s no answer until he finishes reading, he’s a careful reader.
I don’t really care, he says.

I hear you lost your eye in The War,
though that is like saying
you lost your eye playing Scrabble or
wrestling wild beasts in the Serengeti.
We, perched on wooden stools inside,
licking foam from four dollar nonfat Chais,
are far removed from any of “The Wars.”
It is easier for us to imagine you
bent over a battlefield of cardboard
scrutinizing letters.
So [...]