From the rocking of the cradle to the rolling of the hearse,
this line from a Kristofferson song runs through my mind
each time I visit you. It’s like you are back to being a baby,
rocking in the cradle of dependency, rolling towards life
beyond, especially as I see you now, asleep,
your discarded life in the brown wig […]
My writing hand is as frozen as the birch
branch outside the cabin window—
the branch quivers in intervals as if knowing
my longing to ink a blank page with meaning,
just as I know that a chickadee’s flight pattern
has ended on a branch below my view.
This stillness with intermittent quivers induces
feeling like finishing a third glass of wine
then […]
it was humor that opened
even the toughest woman
if you got her to laugh or smile at
somethin’ you said, you were in there
when I was growin’ up,
part of bein’ a man was knowin’
how to talk to a woman
if you were datin’, you didn’t show up
at her place empty-handed either
after dabbin’ myself with English
Leather, I’d run to […]
I hear my brother screaming,
and through a window,
see him lying on the curb –
his head, arms and legs bleeding
He tried to ride my bike
again – the gray Huffy’s
20-inch frame – too much
for him to handle, but not enough
to shake his fearlessness
of anything larger than himself
not even our high-strung mom,
scolding his disobedience
after rushing outside with her […]
At her leisure Sheopens the curtainswalks out onto her balconyinvites youto have a look.Slowly She risesgracefullyhushes you incharms you.The wind’s rush liftsher summer nightgownover her headslips her sun burnished armsout of slim shoulder strapsand the grace of its fallingleaves you dizzy.That’s when Shegathers you upwhirls you like […]
