After so many years, I have learned it is best
to keep a $20 bill hidden in my car
or on my person
and a can of WD-40 whenever possible.
There is no MAYDAY when our training wheels
roll into the thick brush piles of regular everydayness.
I have a new therapist, and she sparkles…
or maybe I am finally ready to receive that energy.
She is normal-looking.
On the street, you might nod and open a door
or walk past without recognizing her grace.
But her presence
brought such ease to me
that I longed to break mid-sob and ask her
if it would be okay,
if she would like to hear, too, about
the glittering, happy memories
I do not want to leave.
I am and always have been
a hustling kaleidoscope
of fractured rainbows
calling on the universe
to exchange my brokenness
for cinematic legitimacy
to share with whatever audience
I entertain.
Could someone please
hand me
a magnifying glass?
Viewing the days
through the eyes of my eccentric fanciness
is a good time
– complicated, chaotic, but uniquely me nonetheless.
My authenticity was born barefoot,
in a flower-filled side yard,
jumping rope with a garden hose stream
held by my grandmother’s summer hands.
She once went to Ocean City, Maryland,
looking like a movie star
and sometimes,
I wore the baby blue terry cloth shorts
she brought back
or maybe, the eyelet dress with bowtie straps
from the dress-up box.
My reality has grown me into a thick-trunked, sycamore
an ever-changing but resilient woman
with roots deep in a ground fed and watered
by the mercy of God,
who pokes me
with a teasing love and guiding firmness
that I kneel before
in respect.
He is down with my ugly cries,
my jazz hands,
my resting silence.
After so many years, I have learned
that brightness waits,
hiding in the darkest corners,
ready to relight the lamp
that is needed
for our journeys-
to the end of days or the gas station down the street.
It brings freedom,
but only if we are willing
to work for it,
to rearrange our bones and parts,
to sweat while making space
for the light to fill
so that we can claim it, again, as our own.
Darling you are free to chase the lightning anytime you want
with pearl-colored comfort wrapped ‘round your shoulders.
No storm may smite your soul beyond rebirth,
Love loves you too much to allow that.
Wash your face, your hands, and your aching feet
in the grace that grows perennial.
Her rain will sow flowers in your hair,
crowning the miracle growing from ashes and blood.
Write across the rooms of your heart in whatever ink you like-
you are beloved and beloved and beloved.
Sewn from Love spinning the universe itself.
Learn to spell it in every language,
practice forming the word that will form you back.
Feel it cross your lips in exhalation, revelation-
Beloved
even weary, even doubting, even now.
never
shrink
a wild thing.
don’t diminish it,
with your novice touch.
try only observing,
with the softest gaze.
as it exists,
in its freest form.
without your disruption,
or any of your weak intentions.
it is not for your insecurities.
it is not for your fears to understand.
divert your hardened focus,
it doesn’t need your rules.
it is not for you to grasp.
She carries a wisdom,
you may never know.
love her from a distance.
love her there,
where she can most love herself.
Plaster blooms above the bed,
a constellation of flowers
from the scrabbled bushes out front.
And in the living room–a window big
as a daydream and twice as dirty:
refracting spider webs in a trender neglect.
The refrigerator thrums dust through the floorboards.
Outside, a hoisted-up neighbor downshifts
his too-big truck, a groan
Of brakes and the smell of diesel.
This is the garden I know:
This bed of quiet
listening.
LexPoMo friends, it’s always such a pleasure to read your work and comment with you. I look forward to this chance to write. I’ll be rereading your poems and look forward to seeing you again, hopefully sooner than LexPoMo 2026!
*with a deep bow of gratitude
to
the Lexpomo community
from whom
i learn much and
have much
to
learn
may you journey well, dear ones
Sunset fading close of day
We come together here every evening
holding hands
Vision drawn by darkling sky
dimness of all
but
our actions
Stars appear, sacred, mysterious
transitional time
My parents and all ancestors
past, present, and future
stand with me
We bow in gratitude of the gifted
day that’s done
honoring our dear ones and
all of you
all beings in all worlds
During accessible aura of opening up
peace
peace
peace
Thirty days.
Scores and scores of lines
the lyrics to the soundtracks of our lives.
Cicadas, faith, and unrest.
Grappling with our own emotions.
Building a small community of craftsmen
with which to share
the beauty of expression
blossoming warmth of humor
and ice-pick sharp expressions of pain.
Writing, commenting, sharing
small windows into the worlds
of the folks we walk past without really knowing.
Within me it awoke a bonfire
igniting and catalyzing
a chain-reaction shattering the solid
brick and mortar dam between me
and my inspiration.
What was once a trickle
through a carefully bored hole
between two mis-matched bricks
now, a deluge. Thirty shared poems
plus three or four more
a proliferation of poetry from a poet
unaccustomed to a week
penning three or more.
I am so grateful
to my mom for suggesting
to the fine folks who designed and aligned
this wonderful event’s existence.
To you, dear reader,
for taking the time and the care to read
my works, my thoughts, my hopes and my dreams.
Oft glimpsing my deepest insecurities.
In a cadence that may not be how I intended
or imagined, but
that makes my poems unique to each of you
and yours to me.
We are all different, in the way that we read.
Like snowflakes, indistinguishable to the eyes,
yet structurally unique.
I look forward to next year.
Signing off, with free verse rhymes
taking it one line at a time
A. G.
The twinkling glow of sky
brightens with the motion
of a rushing wave, building,
pooling light to chase away
whatever umbra clings to its
delicate swathe of clouds.
I wish I would want to be this marshmallow
-skewered, toasted, and squashed— between
waxy chocolate
and
Half-stale graham crackers
to be made of marrow and formed of fluff, desired &
delighted by your desire for me
to be worried fewer times that I will be consumed by
my softness
Digested without tasting
Expelled as a waste of calories and time.
I wish you would want to savor this campfire delight, a
snack you’ll have made of, my sweetness &Trust
that you’ll
not lose me to the fire