Blood Dazzler

Coffee House Press is an independent nonprofit literary publisher.

Coffee House Press receives general operating support from the Minnesota State Arts Board, through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature and from the National Endowment for the Arts, and major general operating support from the McKnight Foundation, and from Target.

All I ever wanted to be

was a wet, gorgeous mistake,

a reason to crave shelter.

stop reaching across breakfast tables

to slap our children into silence.

Then His eyes are dry,

threaded with lightning and hurt,

and we are reminded, again,

just what He’s capable of.

Nate was mannered and practical. He stormed precisely.

Ophelia nibbled weirdly on the tips of depressions.

Rita was a vicious flirt. She woke Philippe with rumors.

Stan was born business, a gobbler of steel.

None of them talked about Katrina.

She was their odd sister,

the blood dazzler.

Emily whispered her gusts into a thousand skins.

Irene, the baby girl, threw pounding tantrums.

José liked the whip sound of slapping.