Death

Vibrant face of depression

Dead Poets Society (1989 film): Public Domain

Another flick, a spark
once more awakened the past
Illustrating memories
are alive and always last

I recall your visage with
its veins, … Read more

WHERE DID THAT GOD GO?

Image: Public domain, via CNN

That God asked us to make ourselves an ark of cypress
And interiorize it with grand rooms
This god had an aging fishing vessel ready … Read more

Crush Depth

Rich man’s ease devolves
to boredom, then to restless
annoyance, propelling high-priced,
high-risk adventures, in places

high or low, as chance may offer
and fate may choose—the “I-only”
ego can … Read more

Shattered like glass

For Azaan Khan

An innocent life shattered like glass:
handlebar dreams once pure and bright.
United we stand at the Berkley impasse

because of a drunken monster of gas.
Threats … Read more

When they kick in

your instincts may lead you
to the ocean’s floor or
the banks of a sandy beach,

whether you’re a fish
or human, or some species
in between. You may be … Read more

American Gothic

after Grant Wood

She sits in her Adirondack chair
on the front porch of a summer afternoon,
overlooking the cutting garden
in her Confederate flag t-shirt
knitting shotgun shells with … Read more

Miracle

Life lies cocooned, amidst
collapsed concrete and mangled steel;
Breathing, sighing, waiting;
Hungry, helpless, wailing…
The dead surround by hundreds,
Thousands, tens of thousands

Yet, a new life lies cocooned,… Read more

Anointed

 for Tyre Nichols

Because they did not see his crown
Because we see it now
Another nobody heading somewhere
Cornered not too far from home
Though farther from than ever… Read more

Relentless Ian

He makes his way
over miles of ocean
gathering strength
looking like a threat.
Bold landfall in Cuba
slices off the power,
leaves families homeless
his eye aimed at the … 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

The Last Text

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

5/25/22

I was impressed
the normally heedless traffic
for a second stopped, unprompted
—some goslings crossing.

I think we all feel a little raw about that.

It was likely the same … Read more