Pain

Birth

 

You don’t remember what you were
given on the way here … A pale moth
labours sideways across and inter-
section under which you sit listening to,

The National, … Read more

It’s Time

Prayers for Lewiston, Maine

The morning after horror,
at lanes regularly reserved
for just-in-time fun,
the city of Lewiston
remains still,
shocked, and silent —
its streets quiet. Red maples… Read more

Energy

The Times of Israel

My energy has been kidnapped.
It sits in a dark tunnel, and waits,
eyeless in Gaza.

While I, bereft of energy,
sit in my salon and … Read more

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

Aloha I Ka Hamau

Ka’u mau keiki
Holo! Holo!
Holo i ke kai!
Aia ma luna ou ka hanu o ka deragona,
Ua hoʻolapalapa kona huhū i kou mau ʻāina kapu.
Holo! Holo!
Holo … 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

Fireworks

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When you hear a BOOM! or a BANG!
I wish you could run in excitement
for fireworks.
I wish you don’t need to panic–
Were those gunshots?

When you wonder, … Read more

Beloved Child

Almost eight, Amy swims down the lane casually, in a zig-zag pattern,
kicking her feet so slowly they barely leave a wake,
eyes closed as her swim cap grazes the … 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

The Poet Spoke for Me

 

The Israeli man I married—and divorced—had parents who were born in Chernivtsi, then in Romania, now in Ukraine. We met on the way to Machu Picchu after he finished … Read more