I learned sighs in the kitchens of my childhood along with towel flicks, food fights, and stern instruction to dry a glass again to remove evil water spots or anything else the night’s dish washer had missed. Do it again was my mother’s hovering mantra. Dad just got overwhelmed. As head chef most holidays, he … Continue reading day 6 -Breath Before Grace
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day 5 -loosely after Ada Limon’s Late Summer After a Panic Attack
Inch by inch I mosey, thunderstruck with awe loving the way weather works. today’s warm breath on my neck, wrung tight from weekend labors delights me all the way down to the soles of my feet, touching grass for the first time every bit as tender as the day my mother hovered and gently swayed … Continue reading day 5 -loosely after Ada Limon’s Late Summer After a Panic Attack
day 4- Family Mart Pastoral
Day 4—Family Mart Pastoral From this image @spaceliminalbot A convenience store, Family Mart, beckoning, fluorescent-bright, photo-shopped at the end of a well-groomed dirt path against a lovely pastoral background… a grove of trees nearly obscures the tall lime-green & white roadside logo sign to the right of the building. Otherworldly, neon against pastel. I might … Continue reading day 4- Family Mart Pastoral
-day three- Sweetgrass & Salsa
I learned the word Pentimento at 23, eating chips & salsa reading Lillian Hellman’s layered tales about real people in troubling times and one which, once the truth bled thru, I later learned, was its own counterfeit on canvas or, false claim to proximity, anyway, attempt to type over a certain story, not really hers, … Continue reading -day three- Sweetgrass & Salsa
Day 2-Roads, I’ve Written Them
Shouldered a futon all the way from The Bowery to Brattleboro Left my high heels in a box by an alley door, saved myself From bunions – and probably more Times when the compass pointed east I looked west and wondered Ticket on a table, I said No thanks Rainbow Room, moonlight swim, panty hose, … Continue reading Day 2-Roads, I’ve Written Them
So It Goes
Elephant walk life back then forth one two three slow pulse rumble You and Me So it goes steady, see what swirls around us snow on the trees birdbath tumbles background noise pops - flares truth telling -foibles take things slow forward, back possum track and so it goes Winter fools day sky winks … Continue reading So It Goes
Old Trees, Level Distance
Based on an 11th Century Landscape by Guo Xi NaPoWriMo 2021 Preview Prompt: Ekphrasis Friend, I’ll meet you on the bridge In the mist shall we walk together? Last year we were young when we said goodbye Now our hands resemble twisting branches You stoop where once you stood tall, jacket threads trailing My hair, … Continue reading Old Trees, Level Distance
May 30 Elemental
Elemental My cousin was burned in the corner of his garage, fooling around with matches near the gas can when he was 8. It happened the same year when another cousin on the other side of the family died in a garage fire at their Florida home. That boy was a baby. The news crackled … Continue reading May 30 Elemental
May 22 Drift
I Blacktop driveway, back warm Skyblue holds the spinning world. You know clouds in animal forms Giraffes, running dogs, a beautiful woman’s hair rivers behind her. She disappears. Perhaps She walks the creek behind a mansion’s dirt path broken by fallen trees, rusted bicycles that lean along eroded embankments shuddering with snakes, brown birds. Air-ripe … Continue reading May 22 Drift
Dear Madam
We’re happy to write from the Department of Extravagant Gratitude (D.E.G) to congratulate you on your recent extraction from the clutches of despair. We understand that the Safflower feeders are emptying and filling up again and that you, good woman, are keeping the finches well-fed, able to chuckle again at their quarrels on nearby branches, … Continue reading Dear Madam