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The Feeling of Being Stuck on Earth
The feeling of being stuck on Earth comes
when I see a shooting star and you don’t.
Somewhere in the Atlantic, those stars
watch ashes float inside a wine bottle,
deliver themselves to a fisherman,
or a young girl thinking how
a single pine cone can kill you,
simply by falling from the sky -
Glimpses of My Journey
When I was in grade school
they tried to convince me
all was well with our country,
yet the Cold War frightened us
with fear of atomic bombs
and the best school could do
was have us hide under desks,
suspended me when I wouldn’t,
refused to listen to me
when I tried to explain
cowering under a desk
can’t protect us from the bomb. -
A Stranger At My Door
The twilight leaned upon the hill,
And all the woods grew hushed and still.
The dusk unrolled its ashen floor,
When fate knocked faintly at my door. -
a thousand miracles
I. el abuelo
there is no time to fetch the midwife.
the townsfolk stand by and witness
a baby boy, born beside the river
he will someday cross.
there will be work on the other side,
a life to build and a language to learn
on the rails dancing between two lands.
after years of steam and sweat,
he is the last one to survive,
the last son living. -
Slur
It was me, in my bikini,
And my glasses.
And the latter was failing its job. -
My Green Eyes
Apparently, only 2% of the population has green eyes.
Apparently, only 10-12% of the population is left-handed.
Apparently, only 10.6% of the population has premature grey hair. -
The Bus Stop
The bus stop smells like rain and hot metal.
A flyer peels itself from the glass wall.
Someone’s coffee bleeds into the sidewalk,
dark spreading veins through cracked cement.
I count the coins warming in my palm,
their dull clink keeping time with traffic. -
I Want To Go Back
I want to go back.
To rain drops on car windows,
And long drives to nowhere.
Red lights and doodles on fogged windows. -
Her Love Caused Her Fall
‘Her love caused her fall’
She smiled down upon me
From her lofty branch
Tears rolled down her cheeks like diamonds
When she saw I had a ring -
Learning to Type
On the manual typewriter
in my father’s old workroom,
I tried to learn to type. -
Stars Under a City Sky
The only stars under a city sky are the ones we paint onto the ceiling.
The only horison you can find is the one displayed on a compass.
The only lights to guide the way are the ones on the front of a car.
The only life left to live is the one we find along the way.
My heart pounds in my chest like a bass drum.
I can feel everything coming to me like a freight train. -
Winter or Spring
You and I are living
But we live and die each day;
We wake or pass away,
Each and every hour. -
tiger prince
i went to the tiger exhibit at the zoo today
he was white
a strange color for a tiger to be -
Demise
The last leaf
clings to the bare tree
a lonely retainer -
Deaf Utopia
Three hundred years ago
on the island of Martha’s Vineyard
everyone knew sign language
because the mainland was far away
and there was a lot of inbreeding—
cousins marrying cousins—
and a recessive genetic quirk -
Sturgeon Moon
Sixteen miles to Choctaw
The noose around my neck
Another night comes undone
With ways I can’t forget -
A Glimpse of You
The nights are tender, draped between the moon and the stars.
Every second, every minute — eternal.
Your eyes behold the universe in their depths,
But a fear lingers that eternity itself is ephemeral. -
Erased Before Goodbye
Memories made in play,
players set upon the board.
A move, a kick, a dodge, a tag.
We children live for the game,
and the game lives in us,
light in our smiles, lift in our hearts. -
The Other World
The other world is stone –
machinery ear plugs offices high up.
A lover burns herself.
A man counts his mistress in numbers. -
pink shoes
in the morning light
your little pink shoes
wait by the door
declaring
they are needed
