Politics

Intersection

Image: Election campaign signs (www.ahwatukee.com)

The mountain blushes at the sight
of freedom showing off its underwear
at the corner of 48th and Elliot
where the campaign signs have recently… Read more

Thirty Pieces

Thirty Pieces
the man in midnight colored cassock murmurs
God’s work is done
thirty pieces jingling
he offers a thousand hosannas
to the prophet
a little foul-mouthed and avaricious, but … Read more

For Deborah Samuel

Image: Vanguard NGR News

You should have picked the salt
from my body grain
by grain before you stoned me
or at least chosen
stones of the same size
and … Read more

Kneel and Pray

I’m back to hiding under my third-grade desk
back down here with the gum
while the shirtless bully grabs for our crayons
again and demands we thank him for it… Read more

Night Light

Constructed cream
embedded with cutlery
missing plates,
indigo Lincoln
rumbling toward me,

landline phone
with a large black
switch, a beret
& teeth to pitch
me awake

into a curtained … Read more

Another raid at the mosque

Image: By James Gilmore

police have entered    morning prayers
another raid at the mosque

Palestinians stockpiled stones
                set barriers
19 people injured    three to the hospital    beaten
                by rubber-coated bullets
nine arrested    smashed windows… Read more

An OK State Motto

 

A woman wipes her eyes –
allergic to the taste of metallic
blood pooling on the tongue from biting
so hard to prevent comments that
leave her feeling less … Read more

Picture Window

 

March wind shudders
against the glass, shattering
sun and shadows of leaves
into moving mosaics on the wood floor.
Outside, the morning breaks,
almost too bright to bear.
It’s Monday. … Read more

For the Sake of My Children

 

Painting “For the Sake of My Children” by Lana Matskiv

Ripped from our land,
veins and arteries exposed.
My man must remain,
defend the homeland.

There’s a hole in … Read more

Performance Art

 

Artwork: istockphoto by Getty Images in public domain

He’s the last man standing.
Whether comedian
or statesman
performance is all
for the last man standing.
Standing in the rubble … Read more

COLLATERAL DAMAGE

 

Image: A woman is visible through the condensation on a window of an evacuation train at Kyiv central train station. by Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images

A blast, shattered… Read more