Table of Contents
Acknowledgments xiii
1 Quarantine
Quarantine Morning 3
May 14, 2020 5
My Hand 6
Quarantine 8
8 Steps of 2 Steps Down 10
After 11
Anatomy Lesson for the Officer 13
My Head and My Mother's Breast in Quarantine Together 14
Centipede 15
Yes 16
Quarantine Argiope 18
Not Once 20
Meditation During the Sufferings and Deaths of Others 21
Before the Electric Traps Arrived 24
Isolation Liverwurst 26
Quarantine Fast 28
Narcissus Takes Another Look at Household Tasks 30
Monday, November 2, 2020 31
Quarantine Puzzle 33
Narcissus in Quarantine 34
339th Morning of My Easy Quarantine 35
X-Ray & Rats 36
New Year's Song 38
Sprung Trap 39
Spotted Aria 40
When I Looked Out 41
A Song Near the End of the World 43
2 Amherst Balladz
1 "Let us Play - Yesterday -" 47
2 "You did not Sell - the Blueing -" 49
3 "I Did not Shave - to Visit your Town -" 51
4 "I Slept - in your Town - behind a Door" 53
5 "In one Double-Glaze Pane -" 55
6 "The air - was Close - the Pane - slid High -" 56
7 "Outside your Room - in the Wain's Coat -" 58
8 "At the center of your Room -" 60
9 "No Jack I - Nor killed a Joint -" 61
10 "When I came to Emily's - House - late -" 64
3 Balladz
Best Friend Ballad 67
Ballad of the Chair 69
Grandmother, with Parakeet 71
Paper Doll Ballad, for Fats 72
Crazy Sharon Talks to the Bishop 74
Ballad of Once Mike Carter 76
Cuckoo Ballad 78
Joined Ballad 80
Snap Pants Off Like 81
Spectrum Ballad 83
Ballad of the Blossoming Branch 84
Ballad of EIGHMIWAY 86
Subway Ballad 87
Dear Stanley, 89
Ballad Torn Apart 91
Geraldine Dodge Ballad 92
Ms. Turbation 93
Not Extinct Yet 95
Hair Ballad 96
Rubber Shower Mat Ballad 97
Handkerchief Ballad 98
Epidermis Ballad 100
4 Album from a Previous Existence
Part 1
If I Had Been Able 105
Genesis 106
My Mother's Meat Grinder 108
Her Portrait 109
Bad & Crazy 110
When They Told Me God Could Read My Mind, 111
Tender Bitter 112
In Praise of the Tear Glands 114
Goodbye 115
What Came Next After Our Father's Death 116
Part 2
Ghazal Confessional 117
White Boy in Pajamas, Big Sur Inn, Gulf War 119
The Communicant 121
Bianca Helps Me Clean My Attic 122
5 o'Clockface 123
Improv 125
If I Were to Sing Myself, 126
Into Tahoe 128
This is just to say 130
To Chase, After the Diagnosis 131
To Chase, During Her Surgery 132
All of a Sudden, I See, and My Heart Sinks 133
What I Look Like 134
Dream Near the End 136
5 Elegies
Part 1
Transformations 139
Her Brother 141
Confessional (for S.B.) 143
That Goddess 144
Wasn't Afraid Of 146
Looking for Galway on the Vermont Mountainside 148
Suddenly 150
After Reading Shallcross 152
Part 2
When They Say You Have Maybe Three Months Left 155
Heroin 157
When the Cancer Has Come Back, Sleeping in His House with Him but Not in His Bed with Him 158
His Birthday 160
His Voice, a Week Before His Spirit Follows His Voice Out 161
Three Views of Him Asleep, His Final Days 162
The Preparing 164
The Box 166
After an Epitaph on an English Headstone 168
Can't Sleep 169
Komodo 170
