United States of America
Empty Folders
No prior Prez has smuggled docs,
concealed in boxes among his junk,
containing so much secret stuff,
and now they’re seized, he’s in a funk.
He claims the docs belong … Read more
Don’t Take my World
Today I walked familiar streets,
stood where avenues cross,
where people meet.
I smiled at a lady with a toddler in hand,
bought a pretzel at the corner stand,
saw … Read more
A Week of Shootings
The black kid who rang the wrong doorbell
expecting his siblings is recovering at home.
The white teenage cheerleaders fled
after one climbed in a mistaken car.
One was treated … Read more
On Lies Many Shapes
My 4th-grade math teacher would categorize lies by shape and weight. Headaches on test days were triangles (angles acute and obtuse). Bruised knees and hallway trips were trapezoids (competing sides, … Read more
Drought-Break
For months, nothing but rain in California.
Rain in California, as unexpected
as a savant’s first symphony, as kindness
from a forgotten foe.
The oaks lean in, slump tons
of … Read more
Missouri Compromise
I have never owned a gun but I stockpile
books which I will lend to anyone who wants
one. The right to reading is the right
to a good defense. … Read more
To Never Know Nana’s Favorite
You’ll always be the story
with an unknown
ending.
A plot not allowed to unfold.
A premature climax.
An unlikely protagonist.
An unsuspecting conflict.
A setting of details unwanted.
A … Read more
Got Your Goat
The 4-H program, Shasta County Fair
has reaped a world of trouble we just read.
A little girl asked them her goat to spare
but no, authorities wanted it dead.… Read more
American Gothic
after Grant Wood
She sits in her Adirondack chair
on the front porch of a summer afternoon,
overlooking the cutting garden
in her Confederate flag t-shirt
knitting shotgun shells with … Read more