i am second to none, i am familiar to all.
in a shattered hall of mirrors, i exist in you, 
in all your broken parts. 


untoward (After Paradise Lost, Book IV, lines 58-75)

the theses;
i’m through with striving down blind sunshine.
light we cannot touch, dare not stare at. 
our virtue can be more— we deserve every ounce
of the inferno if it means our own star 
on the other side.

//

(nom'd for pushcart prize!)

partners in aftermath (after Lucifer, Beelzebub, and Paradise Lost)

there's more use in you than flesh.
find it quick-- 

marrow

when you keep me
it is with a reverence 
for i am my own god
the gift your own request.

Abeille, or No Legs (after the medieval bestiary depictions of Bees, courtesy of Pliny the Elder, Augustine, and Isidore of Seville, as well as Greek/Roman beliefs)

(Our Father, who art in Heaven;)

(Your whole life, I think You’ve needed to hear this—)

(You aren’t a good person.)

pfeffington

Selected work