Acycle of 24 sonnets, Coronary (2011) is a limited-edition poetry collection printed by Fitzgerald Letterpress in New Orleans. Now in its third edition, copies are available at independent bookstores in the New Orleans area and at Main Street Books in Hattiesburg, MS, as well as at Looking Glass Books in Edinburgh.

The Literateur: “[Coronary] has an honesty of voice and an acuteness of observation for spaces where physical and metaphysical meet … that is reminiscent of Robert Lowell’s Life Studies. … Crisply-woven sentences provide a fine lacquer for these vignettes of filial compassion, slipping down the avenues of memory, affection and place.”

♦

Donor

The blood bank called today. I can’t give
blood, or even plasma, due to the shots
I’m taking. Consider this: I’m O-positive,
the near-universal donor, and I’m not
able to give blood back to the man who gave
me mine. Even though you taught me to lie
on all the forms provided—no ma’am, I’ve
never left the county, much less the country—
the cells speak nothing but the truth. I would
donate my blood, my veins, or my heart
would any of it bring you back, but the cold
facts stand between us. Deception is an art
that meets its nemesis in science;
our blood still whispers even in its silence.