You Don't See the Ghost At First: A Chapbook

There comes a time when you're ready to follow through, complete, publish, finish. After decades of compiling dozens of files and piles of poems, I'm finally creating books. Here's the first, a chapbook, You Don't See the Ghost At First.

This is a collection of flash-autobiographical pieces and poems, a tiny montage of images surrounding the child I once was.

Here is "Happy Baby" from the collection.

Happy Baby

Lie on your back, she says.
Breathe big with your belly.
With each hand, grab a big toe:
This is our final pose

But I’m no puppy, I think
Ridiculous, exposed
Unsafe, to open to the sky, to anybody
Mother always said, Keep your legs closed

I lie down in the cold
Hold big silly toes
Break grip, fall out
Roll, smoothing a kinked spine

I can drop anything, let go, hold on
Gigantic belly looming, laughing
Limbs loosed from all they carry—
A cradle I never knew.