Explore

Mikey said the hole wouldn’t lead to China, but he was frequently wrong.

There’s a god sitting, the morning foaming in his mouth.

Anne Marie Rooney

I was constantly being torn between belief and disbelief in his narrative.

“Silence can be difficult, and we’re silent the whole time,” she said.

The pictures were taken in the woods, naked from the waist down.

She had instinct for seeing what she could make happen.

A rifle, empty shells, the remains of a man, a bullet through his chest.

She holds the shirt to her face and inhales. With a start she pulls away.

My husband barely noticed, while I felt the sharp bite of her words.

I didn’t know I would be any good. But I knew I wanted to be a poet.

“There’s got to be some way through this,” he says, “without losing her.”

I don’t remember a time when I didn’t know my father’s grief.

Yes, the race of children possesses magically sagacious powers!

We are nothing; less than nothing, we are only what might have been.

I take what I want, and have ever since what I want disappeared.

“Why, Ma? I don’t understand. I just don’t want you to be alone.”

I am determined to praise my particular world, so I must praise you.

The surface of night is disrupted. Ripples cross the neighborhood.

She was laughing. Something animal in me was sparked, and I chased her.

There is beauty in the way she looks at me over the kitchen table.

Edward the Funny didn’t have much to laugh about in his midthirties.

One who has suffered enough, you can love yourself to death.

I can remove my hand the second it becomes too much for me.

O Fatima if only you would lean my way my heart would quiver.

“You see,” Sister Elba said, smiling, “you should never doubt him.”

I have to wait till day to tell you that you’ve sunk down below sea level.

Anne Marie Rooney

He took off his clothes and left them on the living room floor.