Joanne Monte Biography

The river below us:
nitrogen, phosphorous, petrochemicals,
dioxin from the paper mills,
a rich buffet of metals digested
...

Entering the garden,
I notice the rhododendron,
the platinum pearl, that had displaced
the unwanted vines of bittersweet
...

(a.m.) the city
was split by lightning,
stripped down to bone, and tortured,
its flesh lashed by flames…
...

An ordinary morning―
awakening to nothing but daylight
prodding through the eggshell-tinted blinds
and the warm quilts to be tossed back
...

I

This morning I thought how easy
it must have been for you
...