“Immigrant’s Mnemonic”
I arrived an alien now.
In a different culture,
will I lack nurture or admittance? I don’t share
religion, rites, in spite of rights with you.
My language languishing as … Read more
Adult
We Could Have Been Freedom Fighters
It’s the Solstice & I visit Diana
in her home above agate-strewn shores
obscured by eucalyptus trees
and clouds, dense and gray as tanks
The shortest day of the year … Read more
When life gives you lantern flies, make honey…?
When I first heard of the honeydew honey, inspired and conspired
by the pesky lantern fly, my first thought (clearly not the best thought)
was of a cliched “honey to-do … Read more
CLIMATES CHANGE
Disquiet, dis-ease, deceit
permeate the atmosphere,
suspended
like stale smoke.
Trying to navigate the pollution
of fake facts confounds,
as no fresh breezes appear
to clear the murkiness.
Living in … Read more
UVALDE 2022
beloved innocents taken
pour red upon our fragile homes
in morning light spilled with guilt
we fret, we cry, we blame
measure the distance of our fall
a too-late urgency… Read more
Irrelevant Daughters
You’re tied to kin that capture
your heart in moonlight
but your hallucinations
are made up of mechanisms
of distrust, dotted
with purple aster.
Inside a church: shoes
lined up … Read more
Our Thoughts and Prayers
The Tec-9 is fast and light, proved itself
at Columbine.
(our thoughts and prayers are )
The Glock’s another make will do you well:
Red Lake 10, 27 Sandy Hook, … Read more
Blue Angels
Annapolis, MD commissioning week
it’s a tradition of the US Naval Academy
the Blue Angels entertain, show off skills,
an hour of stunt flying along … Read more
United We Fall
The bodies are piling up
again
as past becomes present
again.
A different time,
a different place,
different victims
and survivors
united
by innocence,
by grief
by failure,
failure
to … Read more
Modern Buffalo
the shooter was mapping out the aisles for weeks
too many buffaloes
we watch how they run
on the hooves of previous days, last
week my friend’s daughter graduated from … Read more
Thirty Pieces
Thirty Pieces
the man in midnight colored cassock murmurs
God’s work is done
thirty pieces jingling
he offers a thousand hosannas
to the prophet
a little foul-mouthed and avaricious, but … Read more
Infrequent Diaper Changes
what it is to be urban
can feel fire-like
blazing as you see yourself streak down the street
showing off your swagger
women brandish vodka in coke bottles sipped through … Read more
Armed and Dangerous
She was careful not to look too long
keeping her eyes away, a hidden smile
enough to know they had created a plan
showing only her professional style
Once she … Read more