We host a number of what we call coffeehouses at USCL each year; after the last one, I recorded one of my favorite poems, "Cooking Shrimp," which was published in the Winter 2005 issue of Thrift Poetic Arts Journal and reprinted in Moving House. This is a .mp3 sound file, and you should be able to hear it if you have something like RealPlayer or Windows Media Player installed on your computer.   You may need to adjust your volume, though. You can read the full-text below, and find links to other of my poems published in online literary journals too.

Cooking Shrimp

Off Highway 17, watch for the old man
with the red truck, the handwritten produce sign:
tomatoes, watermelon, peaches, shrimp.

Think who will eat them. Sharing shrimp
is a measure of your love: half pound apiece.
A pound for true devotion.

At home, wash each shrimp, the water just above
a trickle. Be careful: the sharp edge can catch
you, the soft place on your palm.

Season the boil with Old Bay. Fresh shrimp
still remember tidewaters, the taste of brine
an echo you must outweigh.

Pull off each shell, hear the crunch of sand
under your feet. Taste black mud, salt air,
each dark vein a history.

Selected Online Poetry Publications  

"How to Identify Birds," storySouth (Summer 2004)

"Swimming Lessons,"  Literary Mama:  A Literary Magazine for the Maternally Inclined (February 2005)