Celebrity cults on public display
from Academy Award ceremonies
to World Trade Center tributes,
farewell funerals to space station
concerts where droning bagpipes
shatter interstellar serenity; wheezing
bellows nurture reeds … Read more
A coffee mug sleeve
Sat comfortably on
The opposite subway seat
Its manufacturer had labeled it well
“eco-friendly & recyclable”
But looked like
The coffee drinker’s divine maker
Had forgotten … Read more
The outlook was most sunny for AG Garland’s team
Trump’s legal gambit was on its face … Read more
Lying in bed
On a hot August night
Listening to the crickets sing
Through the open window.
I feel profoundly relieved
At hearing them again
In our midst
Because as … Read more
(TW: Small mention of blood and violence from a racially motivated hate crime.)
Discrimination
Silenced my mother’s native tongue
Coated with Biluochun tea
Spoons … Read more
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
We drove with the sunroof open
So the breeze could tangle our hair.
We rolled through stop signs,
We ran reds as the others did,
And we pressed send on … Read more
In New York, we say
we are safe from these
frivolous wills, bursting
forth with the
overzealousness
of man.
In Idaho, we watch
as they say:
“Let God’s will be—… Read more
The community garden where I grow tomatoes,
green peppers, zucchini, and gladiolas.
My little piece of heaven – twelve by twelve
what more could I ask … Read more
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
High school sweethearts celebrating
56 years of marriage on a trip to DC.
to find their fate hiding under a tree
Traveling 803 miles from Janesville, WI
to explore the … Read more
the quencher of perpetual thirsts,
the extinguisher of sporadic wildfires,
the melter of wicked witches,
why besmirch your goodness
with outbursts that flood unwary towns
in a flash, turn docile … Read more
The man has been
burned out of his
clothes, out of
the wheat field he
was trying to save
when the wind turned
the flames that outflanked
and overran him.… Read more
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