Poems

Writing About War

 

Everyone is Writing About War
About the arbitrariness of it—
the innocents killed or displaced
by angry men,
and make no mistake, these are men,
even the men who … Read more

Rapture

 

Rose petal lips breathe life back into me,
so consumed by thorns that prickle and poke; snug
a second skin that cocoons your light—
your glow,
it pours out … Read more

Accounting

 

No need to count the dead in Gaza,

their dead are just a number,

a vague number,

if that.

In Ukraine, we know the numbers,

precise, not vague,

in … Read more

Red Raining Over Israel

 

Violence ringing out like a stray bullet

Killing everything it touches dead

As babies are beheaded in front

of their beaten and whimpering parents

And elderly people are kidnapped

It … Read more

The Smallest Victim

 

Hipochryfa’s hankie
Trampled in the mud.
But she can’t move on
Through the ever-flowing present
Spewed into a full-stop
By the roaring flood.
And they all told her,
Stop … Read more

Honestly

 Science is being halted in its tracks.
        — Dean Schillinger

“Science is being halted in its tracks.”
The right wing’s exasperated by the truth;
being free to lie means the … Read more

Tremors

After my Thursday night routine of a six-pack,
I’d steadied my nerves for a morning with pencil
pushers in my office, where the cleaning crew
had taken odds, as if … Read more

State of a Union

An Abecedarian in Support of Labor

almost instantaneously, anchors across the nation
broadcast updates as Biden, in a UAW baseball
cap, walks the picket line to
demonstrate solidarity with labor … Read more

Smile

I was amazed, stunned, stupefied

To see her at last, hanging there.

But: so small, so puny when I was

Expecting something immense, larger-

Than-life, fit for her worldwide

Reputation, … Read more

Arboricide Song

A man with an axe called to his accomplices
from beneath the flow of night’s dark tap;
a bird screamed, a lyrebird. It flew into a tree,
up to where … Read more

Saunasphere

It’s so hot, your brain sounds the alarm—
orders your body to pump water
from interior reserves,
hydrants in the blood, muscles, kidneys,
and brain itself—through dilated vessels
to the … 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

Life Is Like Moon

For Mahsa Amini and the Woman, Life, Freedom movement in Iran

Life is Jina
Jina is Mahsa —

the full circle of light
witness to struggle

Say her name—

The … Read more