I am excited to share four new poems in the April 2022 issue of the Bristlecone E-Journal (edited by Joseph Hutchison, Jim Keller, Sandra S. McRae, and Murray Moulding).

Bristlecone supports poets of the Mountain West, and I proud to be included. Take a sneak peek at my piece entitled The Crime of the Poem, then enjoy the entire Bristlecone E-Journal (see below). And please feel free to download the journal and share!

The Crime of the Poem
after Douglas Kearney

The poem stormed your defenses
in an angry mob of words.

The poem slipped into your dark
and rearranged the furniture.

Invited into your home, the poem played
with matches.

Invited to your table, the poem devoured
the decorative flowers.

The poem lurched against you in the subway
and picked your pockets.

The poem pressed against you for one steamy moment
leaving you aching and wanting.

Stretching out its languorous language,
the poem sold itself for anyone to undress.

Kidnapping a body of language
the poem strip-searched history.

Searching for hidden pockets of decay
to expose, to diagnose, the poem

Turned you—turned us all—into bystanders
of this dissection. The crime of the poem

Came when it made us chose
to be voyeurs complicit in the violation,

Or archivists delicately digging in the dark.