All at Once

All at Once

I. CAUGHT IN THE WEB

Today Our Daughter, a Teacher, Wasn’t Shot
Christmas, 1943
Caught in the Web
My Mother’s Week
Mud and Dust
Ten Inches of Snow Overnight
Recovery
I Have No Idea Why This Is Just to Say
It Could Be
Waiting for Covid
What If
Across the Room

II. ONE CHILDHOOD

Let Us Break Bread Together on Our Knees
It’s Always Within the Wood
I Thought About Putting Together a Jigsaw Puzzle
How We Must Waken
Mid-Morning
One Childhood
Once It Happens
Clothespins
Bartholomew: Disciple
A Perfect Day for a Ballgame
On Certain Nights
Because of William Stafford

III. THE LOST SIMILES

The New Normal
“If It Didn’t Exist, I Wouldn’t Miss It”
After Reading the Table of Contents of Three Literary Magazines and Recognizing Two Names
My Mother’s Ivory Hippopotamus
Saint Mark and His Piano
Have You Had Your Vaccine?
Maybe Tomorrow II
The Man Who Loved Olives
How It Should Be
What? You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Dog?
The Lost Similes

IV. SOME KID WAS SHOT

Just Before Spring
On the Inhumane Hideaway of Objective Distance
The Night Before a Friend Had to Put Down Her Dog
Grief Again
Remember That Rock Song?
Her Bed
On the Bus to Poland
He Had to Put It Off for a Year
Yesterday I Buried a Female Cardinal
Light at the End of Day
After a Second Cup of Coffee
On Another Anniversary of My Father’s Death

V. THE WORTH OF WAITING

Margarita Farewell
After Leaving Bed at 2 a.m. I Wondered If I was Still in the Same House
Nathaniel Before the Storm
At Home
Before What Came Before
The One Note
High Fly: The Outfielder
The Hidden Permutations of Love
The Worth of Waiting
All I Know Is It Was Dark

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS