Mother Tongues

Mother Tongues
 
 
Table of Contents                                                                              (i)
 
Dedication: Our lingering embrace                                                      iii
 
mother tongue                                                                                     (1)                   
On the Isle of Lesbos                                                                          2
Our Mother of Stone                                                                           3
Daughtering                                                                                         4
And They Didn’t Die                                                                           5
In Praise of the Great Cat                                                                    6
 
* lingua: corral                                                                                       7
 
Five Bagatelles                                                                                    8
Fingerings                                                                                            10
flare                                                                                                     11
Symphony Dinner with Piano Soloist                                                  12
Blue Note                                                                                            13
Bandwagon                                                                                          14
Cooking with Miles                                                                              15
Relaxing with Miles                                                                              16
 
* lingua: tongue-tied                                                                                 17
 
Tell me something good                                                                      18
A Song at Dawn                                                                                  19
Auxiliary                                                                                              20
Prelude to a Kiss                                                                                 22
First Guardian of Flight: The Angel of Time                                            24
Second Guardian of Flight: The Angel of Refinement                               25
After Tonsure                                                                                      26
 
* lingua: ladyfingers                                                                                 27
 
Ethiopia Stretches Forth Her Hands                                                    28
Manual for Initiation into the Zebra Sisterhood                                  29
Electioneered                                                                                      30
Old News                                                                                            32
After the Coup (or Not)                                                                      33
The Crystal River                                                                                 34
Profile                                                                                                  36
How I Write                                                                                        37
 
* lingua: good taste                                                                                  38
 
Real Simple                                                                                          39
Way Out West                                                                                     40
Autumn Leaves                                                                                   42
Marvin in Stereo/Right Ear                                                                 43
Marvin in Stereo/Left  Ear                                                                  44
morning, 11.9.16                                                                                 45
Burying Willie, Our Lion                                                                     46
Malick Sidibé’s Camera            Calls                                                               47
 
* lingua: gorgon                                                                                       48
 
Benin Bronze                                                                                       49
Unaccompanied Minor                                                                        50
Children’s Swings                                                                                51
Pond in Museum Garden                                                                     52
Ritual Object                                                                                       53
The Body Counts                                                                                 54
at war                                                                                                   55
Wildcat                                                                                                56
 
* lingua: a quick tongue                                                                            58
 
The Graves Suite                                                                       
            Ballade: Thyroid Goes Rogue                                                  59
            3 Intermezzi for Unaccompanied Thyroid                               62
            Misterioso: Iodine 131 Meets the Royal Thyroid                      63
            Cadenza: Thyroid Rides Again                                                 64
Koan of the Great Cat                                                                         66
 
* lingua: babble                                                                                      67
 
We are the darker sister                                                                       68
Boy Lotus                                                                                            69
Three Lessons on a Friday                                                                   70
Stumbling Block                                                                                  71
Facing El Greco                                                                                   72
When Thomas Finally Rolled Up, I Said                                               73
Infinitive                                                                                             74