Fifty minutes to sunset
they appear down the hill onto his land. Sticks metal pipes M16
no faces just eyes intent piercing the air. He held onto his hoe
the … Read more
Politics
To Zhina Amini
That day
a tired voice asks her
to free herself, dance under the city’s
weary sun.
She sings silently for freedom
and lets her beauty shine
across Tehran’s grey streets.… Read more
Merrick at the Bat
My job is to call balls and strikes …
– Chief Justice John Roberts
The outlook was most sunny for AG Garland’s team
Trump’s legal gambit was on its face … Read more
Why Are You Here?
for Sayeh (Shadow)
Poet
from the forest-covered mountains
you celebrated the land that jailed you
When the radio broadcast your patriotic song
your jail guards and cellmates asked,
“Why are … Read more
Not Completely Satisfied
The dress I ordered arrived today
in teal blue, not aqua. And of course
I know it’s not much of a grievance
beside the bodies pulled
from bombed buildings in … Read more
Intersection
The mountain blushes at the sight
of freedom showing off its underwear
at the corner of 48th and Elliot
where the campaign signs have recently… Read more
You Were Right Five Years Ago
— for my daughter on the day Roe v Wade was reversed
In answer to your worry, ratcheted up
by all the world, I offered that the ship
would right … 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
For Deborah Samuel
You should have picked the salt
from my body grain
by grain before you stoned me
or at least chosen
stones of the same size
and … Read more
Kneel and Pray
I’m back to hiding under my third-grade desk
back down here with the gum
while the shirtless bully grabs for our crayons
again and demands we thank him for it… Read more
Night Light
Constructed cream
embedded with cutlery
missing plates,
indigo Lincoln
rumbling toward me,
landline phone
with a large black
switch, a beret
& teeth to pitch
me awake
into a curtained … Read more
Another raid at the mosque
police have entered morning prayers
another raid at the mosque
Palestinians stockpiled stones
set barriers
19 people injured three to the hospital beaten
by rubber-coated bullets
nine arrested smashed windows… Read more
As Tanks Press Toward Kyiv
(and you gather with family in a restaurant in Philly)
You want to know why
it persists, this curse of the human,
pyromania at the heart’s core,
the dream and … Read more
An OK State Motto
A woman wipes her eyes –
allergic to the taste of metallic
blood pooling on the tongue from biting
so hard to prevent comments that
leave her feeling less … Read more
Picture Window
March wind shudders
against the glass, shattering
sun and shadows of leaves
into moving mosaics on the wood floor.
Outside, the morning breaks,
almost too bright to bear.
It’s Monday. … Read more