Words
Sun Gazing
Sunlight’s fingered rays reaching through the clouds tired of being cold I turn my eyes toward the deep blue skies yearning to break free from this Santa Fe world there is...
A Real Estate
I live in a borough called Beauty,
at the end of a street called Strife,
and I walk through a glade called Gladness
down a long lonely...
You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar
Grandma said, “you catch more fliesWith honey than with vinegar”I wondered...She herself was vinegarShe never made sweet thingsOr said sweet wordsWas she afraid of...
My life as a ditch
I am a ditch. I live in the ground. When the water flows
through me it washes along my sides with a familiar
tingling that I...
Self-Deceit #3
I know that room inside youwhere you go to hide when you’re scared and don’t want to be seen. Where your back is turned away, eyes lowered if they’re...
For the Sake of Strangers
No matter what the grief, its weight,we are obliged to carry it.We rise and gather momentum, the dull strengththat pushes us through crowds.And then...
Reflections on Baking
Who knew the pecans float to the top ofthe pie? Who knew —When a knife comesclean it is done?
While I recordthat the sun is making a...
An Ode to the Sounds of Blackness
When Ray Charles asked, “Come live with me and won’t you be my love?” Gladys said she’s leaving to be with him On a midnight train...
the form of a tempest
and sometimes it doesn’t rhyme but just seeps out like effluent washing over the cobbled streets of a town you’ve never been to and stumbling, burdened with the mannerisms of my father’s...
Fisherman with a Beer
fisherman with a beer
smoking a cigarette
listening to Nirvana
scaring all the birds
fisherman with a beer
smoking a cigarette
listening to Nirvana
scaring all the birders
fisherman with a beer
smoking...
On my Mom’s dying
She saw my first breath.
I saw her last.
And,
in between,
many days of
smiles, shouts,
puddles, clouds
thoughts
deluded, denuded,
eluded...
