There’s nothing more American than blaming empty space for a giant virus of its own making. Curiosity killed the clotted doctor, and kindness the rest. Really, it’s always …

[Excerpt from The Grief Contest.]

Bone shade: the hip and pelvis
against dusk,

my arthritic spine, the blurring
lines between skeletal structures,

the invisible ray passes
through my soft tissue

the x-ray was an …

The hallways lead through the belly of
hospital, hotel, laundry service, nowhere.
These vague industrial spaces with safety doors

reading Alarm Will Sound if Opened
in this cement and cinderblock gullyway
lead me to …

The Dalmatian sank from me
when I set him on the grass,

pausing to kneel before his bones
crumpled away. I knew he was reaching

toward death. I wanted to …

“And yet many scientists still describe geoengineering as an inevitability—it’s just so cheap, they say … polluting the air on purpose to keep the planet cooler … and …