It’s been quite a week, no?

I was sick with the flu, I practically died of heat-stroke during my last run (it was 82 here at my sister’s here in Philly yesterday) and I realized that the new poem I had been working on and thought was oh-so-wonderfully-perfect isn’t perfect at all. In fact, it kind of sucks.

But, there was good news, too. I finished two amazing books (Ann Packer’s The Dive From Clausen’s Pier and Maureen O’Leary Wanket’s How to be Manly–reviews coming soon), my blog post “How to not piss off a book blogger” featuring the always lovely Julie Valerie took off like crazy (cray-cray crazy), and I’m heading back home to Alaska next week.

Better yet, my latest poem, Fucking a Fisherman in Seward, Alaska, is up at damfino press.

Here’s the beginning:

Fucking a Fisherman in Seward, Alaska

“Wanna lay down?”he asks,
and you, English major
and struggling writer, have to bite
your tongue to keep
from correcting his grammar,
but you lie beside him,
his fleece jacket smelling of wood smoke
and water. When he kisses you
you taste salt, wind, the damp barnacles
clinging beneath the boat

You weep before it’s over,
your face smeared against his shoulder.
It’s the blues that do you in,
the steady shuffling of waves,
the way the sky reflects the bay
as the boat tosses you like a baby
and then curls you up, fetal position.

Read the rest here.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

P.S.: Next week I’m hoping to snag an interview with Alaska poet and playwright Arlitia Jones about her extraordinary Women’s History Month blog posts. Stay tuned, okay?