my memory bank
is too big
to fail
now how about
a bailout
Flew by
whirling and twirling
and “debating” (using this term loosely)
Sights:
anxious hummingbirds
tired teacher friends
happy babies swimming
fat elusive raindrops
two poorly chosen choices in suits
Scents:
comfortingly familiar Coppertone
sweet petunias
grilled burgers with cheese
crisp protective chlorine
burning country
Sounds:
gurgling wispy giggles
furiously scratching pen
obnoxious speed boat
“Will you come see me?”
“You have the morals of an alley cat”
Feelings:
unending found joy
deep cavernous sorrow
giddy swelling anticipation
permanent gratitude
at a loss for words
Eager for July!
Trapped in traffic, tapping my brakes miles away from Somerset, PA,
where Wendy’s and Starbucks served weary travelers, and a Limestone,
domed place on a hill served notice that this was no typical town, but
a county seat, I thought of you in Maryland, alone with your father
visiting from Israel, unable to speak the language. You feared what those
two planes that murdered the towers, and one that wounded the Pentagon,
would mean for us. You came from a land where distance and war forced
many death warrants for lovers. What are we going to do? you had asked,
your words hanging like dead men from a gallows in my mind as I sat there…
… not far from the place
where citizens had faced their
decision to “roll.”
might we be tree rings in the afterlife?
recording forever the ebb and flow of seasons?
i’d like to think so
drawing sun and earth inside us
growing strong and sure
unfolding new leaves every spring
parading our colors in the fall
i could happily spend eternity that way,
standing beside you
making memory into living tissue
our roots conversing daily
as they do now
My pale sky dress is spotted with
darting around collecting
no more than I need
feverishly beating my wings
just to stay in place
looking at others as if
I really see them
rejoicing in a voice hardly
anyone knows
while sipping daily nectar
from summer’s flora
costumed in ultra-reflective
jewel-tone plumage
all my energies focused on escape
Let’s call a spade a spade
Life stands still,
while the world,
is buzzing around us.
Ain’t it crazy,
how the planet keeps spinning,
when nothing,
seems to matter anymore?
It felt like the world was screaming,
and going mute all at once.
I still can’t believe you’re gone.
languishing in the mossed bottom
the darkened well constricts
fat teardrops lifting a body
purple-bruised and splinter-boned
thrown into the rusted-out barrel
pennies of goodwill and fortune
litter hot-iron burns across her skin
rope splintering in spiraling danger
screams resound in the dank pit
begging to past gods of ignorance
useless tears persist in their cascading
pushing eyes into acidic sun-bleached light
muddled air crashes through her nostrils
perfumed with spring’s saccharine bliss
gagging at the taste of salt on her lips
she ponders the thicketed pathway beyond
Today’s a day when people celebrate
how fearfully and wonderfully they are made
how hard they have had to swim upstream
how toughened they have become
to errant judgement
which would bruise or batter most
and
to trod the path a little clearer and wider
for those who didn’t bring their machetes
Red to show that their blood,
is the same as everyone else’s
Orange to emanate a vibrancy,
an openess to love in all forms
Yellow to reiterate their strength
which like the sun, continues to rise and shine
Green to commemorate the freshness
of youth, those new feelings of finding a place
making a life, raising a family, achieving goals that once were not a choice.
Blue to recall the immensity of the movement
the boundless sky which touches all expanding hearts, a token of just how far we can go
by giving ourselves the necessary and nourishing water, we can grow ourselves strong
Indigo are those shadows that show us the shape of who we are and what we can become
Purple, oh delicious purple.
Wild, regal, magical purple.
Purple is for the Pride
