Clean laundry from the heaping two-week old pile finally got put away today
    Take a bow
My bed is now clothing-rid and empty, ready for some hot and heavy, spicy play
    Take me now

Went out to find someone for the night, but they had an awful smell
    Take a mint
Tried to leave the conversation, but my exit didn’t go over well
    Take a hint

Travelled to the next bar, and approached another cutie with a bod
    Take my name
But their equally sexy partner returned, shooing me away with a single nod
    Take the blame

Back alone in my apartment with stomach pains from anxiety
    Take a shit
Guess we’ll just relax at home with a bong and a cup of tea
    Take a hit

There’s no need to rush to find someone to eat me out for lunch
   Take my time
This poem is ridiculously stupid and should end just as such
    Take a rhyme

hold my disingenuous smile 
as I sigh and try
to understand whatever my abuela has been rambling on about for a good while
I’ll laugh along as my friends tease me 
for my lack of a spice tolerance  
I’ll weep and weep as I think about how good of a daughter I could be 
If I didn’t gag at the thought of a chorizo 
If I didn’t roll my eyes at the gritos bellowed from the men outside 
I know I could have fun. 
if i just knew how to speak more than a sentence 
If I had the advantage 
I’ll keep trying and trying to be more than just the slivers that I have taken 
But i’m afraid i’ll never be enough 
for the culture I have been given 

This spring
I started back running consistently
for the first time in four long years.
It’s been hard
and I feel so slow
my shoes are lead anchors.
Yesterday I felt like I was sprinting
for a ten minute mile.
I’ve been back at it
Six weeks or so.
I’ve lost seven pounds
but a fraction of my bodyweight.
I’m not focused on the measure
of gravity’s effect on my mass.
I’m focused on how I feel.
My resting heart rate
has dropped ten bpm
My blood pressure
nearly fifteen points.
Enough for me to get dizzy
and stop taking my Lisinopril.
I have more energy
and my mind feels more clear
like a made bed
washed sheets and pillowcases
a freshly lit candle on the mantle.
They say regular exercise
is important for heart health.
“Regular exercise!”
“Diet and exercise.”
“Get ninety minutes of intense exercise per week.”
They aren’t just the mindless seagulls
from Finding Nemo. They are on to something.
if I’d known it was this easy
and impactful [for me]
I’d’ve never stopped.
I simply have no good excuse.

That glade under a full moon

looks like a perfect place

to spread a blanket, lie back,

and talk about the stars

we’re counting above us.

My heart smiles big

around the tears and fears.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And there would be stories spoken.

And there would be silences

speaking their own language

of comfort and ease.

The furious flash
of a glitching speed sign
screams in orange

SLOW       SLOW      SLOW
DOWN     DOWN     DOWN

at me walking
beside a road devoid
of drivers
so I respond
well where the hell do you think I’m goin’?

Then I pause for a reply,
imagining a sentient entity
reading my heart and trying
to make contact.
A spirit offering guidance?
A devil wielding temptation?
My own conscience?

SLOW
DOWN
IS THE WORLD REALLY READY
FOR WISDOMS YOU HAVE TO SHARE?

I shake my head.
The world does nothing but get caught by surprise.
Why should I wait to be any different?

SLOW
DOWN
OR YOUR TERRIBLE TRUTHS WILL TRAGEDIZE
PEOPLE’S PERCEPTIONS OF YOU!

I puff my chest.
I can’t be afraid of what others will think.
Besides, the real ones will see the real me anyway.

SLOW
DOWN
NO ONE WANTS TO HEAR
WHAT THE WHITE MAN HAS TO SAY ANYMORE!

I breathe in deep.
It’s not about that. Not completely.
The white man does not need to return to power
but he must stay relevant 
so that the wise ones can lead the young ones
back from their waywardness.

The sign stays blank for a moment
as if this fractured fraction of reality
had a loose connection snap back into place.
Then

SLOW
DOWN
36 37 36 35 34
followed by rumbling engines.

I nod, satisfied, and continue on my way
leaving whatever I just conquered–
a malevolent spirit? my own self-doubt?–
forgotten behind me.

For the world right now can’t afford
the good and the strong to flinch.
I have never felt so fearless before.

Against a clear sky,  
wings of grey swirl round in midair—    
wings that whistle     
in the wind as they flap in a flurry,     
in rapid maneuvers—     
with determined force, their grapple,    
their jostle—  when one hits hard    
into the other, who flies away.    

The victor lands and pecks        
     between     stones,    
finds a worm straight away.   
 
This dove flies off, and I spot      
the largest of my country cats     
lurking in a clump of bee’s balm.     

All shocking to see,    
this first sight of my morning!     
Forecast today?     
Not so clear. 

Not quite mates of the soul–
but more ship beyond friend–
we were a crew of two traversing unknown seas,
never daring to choose a port or flag;
in this memory, I love you like the ocean loves the shore—a crashing drink of water,
though never the same again.

Dreamt I lost the handbag my grandmother left me –
the beaded one with the broken clasp and a wine stain.
I looked in the flowerbed she planted with rose-red geraniums
and behind the gas station she used to run in coveralls and perfectly curled hair.
Searched the old house she raised my father in
with fried eggs, and card games, and something you couldn’t quite call love.  

When I found it, full of glass eyeballs (the sort favored by taxidermists), I cried,
thinking of all the small creatures that had passed through her hands.
Who would ever keep a purse full of eyeballs?
I really didn’t know her all that well.
But she read my first poem, when I was 8
and said she loved it.  

At the bottom of the purse, with the unblinking conclave
was a diamond- unset.
Still sparkling amidst the menagerie of her wildcard tastes.
Cosmic wink, from wherever she is now.