A. E. Stallings

Christmas Eve, the Word made Flesh, We put the baby in the manger, But could not add them to the crèche” They still had miles of doubt and danger. They set out from the staircase landing, Traveling lightly and untrammeled: One was kneeling, one was standing, And our favorite was cameled. . . . . Continue Reading »

At six, her stance is Like a professional’s—she waits her cue Intensely and with no expression, The youngest in the troupe of girls Costumed alike in skirts that flare like bells Embroidered with designs— Abstracted tangled animals and geometric vines— Drawn from the Book of . . . . Continue Reading »

Hesperus, you reunite What dawn divides from one another” The businessman and the suburb, The couple and their chronic argument, The toddler in daycare with his frazzled mother. . . . . Continue Reading »

for Barnaby If we’re in the same boat, call it an ark: For forty days and nights”about six weeks Of thunder, water roar, and windy shrieks, Of hiss, growl, moo, oink, trumpet, purr, and bark” We’ve scanned a horizon on which none can mark The scumble of an island’s . . . . Continue Reading »

Christmas Eve, the Word made Flesh, We put the baby in the manger, But could not add them to the crèche—They still had miles of doubt and danger.  They set out from the staircase landing, Traveling lightly and untrammeled: One was kneeling, one was standing, And our favorite was . . . . Continue Reading »

Briefly, newspapers recite The facts about the fisherman Who for two months, day and night, Went out fishing for his son, His only child, aged 23, Who in a winter squall was drowned” Washed overboard and out to sea” And whose body was not found Till the hour his father’s net, . . . . Continue Reading »

The house where we were happy, Perhaps it’s stranding still On the wrong side of the railroad tracks Half-way down the hill. Perhaps new people live there Who think the street name quaint, and watch the dogwood petals shiver Down like flakes of paint. Perhaps they hold each other When the . . . . Continue Reading »