Wrapped in Salty Air from The Gulf: A Cento

I am eating raw violets. I am curious about the possessing, in the having been possessed — an old woman passes us on the ferry, sniffs us twice, You are in love, I smelled it! we could lift into the air & become part of the indistinguishable wave of laughing gulls above a lover’s hand composes the body it touches – Love, like water! How it gives and gives *** Poet credits in order of appearance: “Tonight As You Pace the Garden” by Alina Stefanescu “Maidens Tower” by Tara Skurtu “Looking for the Beautiful Things” by Joy Priest Love, Like … Continue reading Wrapped in Salty Air from The Gulf: A Cento

The Solution

The Solution after JaneHirshfield You are working on a solution to cheat mortality, encourage your stem cells to bloom & reseed. Lycium Barbarum, Ginkgo Biloba, CoQ10 will remind cells to swim, to run, to procreate. You roll them around your mouth, dispersing intentions tonguing possibilities, chew on the solution. You rub fish oil in your hair, on your elbows and toes as the cat licks & licks an exfoliating massage, dead skin flakes fall, dusty motes, pink rising like balloons. Yoga clad Barbies wrinkle their noses in Trader Joe’s as you consider which organic vegetables will yield to the constraints … Continue reading The Solution

Same Old Song

Bravado comes in clusters when she indulges, coins dropping & disappearing like tears on a dusty floor while a front man runs roughshod across her heart, growling an age old song of betrayal, clothes dotting a front yard and new locks on the door. I remember the breeze lifting her hair as the ferry fought swells in the river & she gave her fight to its murky arms. It was a regular day until it wasn’t, her smooth smile drowning at the landing, muddy footprints leading to a song. Today I used the word generator again and got these words: … Continue reading Same Old Song

Every Day We Make a Choice

I’ve forsaken red, it’s look-at-me bluster & narcissistic blasts it makes my neck sweat with its needling & finagling I’m plugging my ears on blue, It’s holier-than-thou proselytizing & pitifying it makes my head ache with its rules & rants, it’s only one path Give me peach jam sunrises & cool green choices, rounds that roll, picking up & letting go, adapting & growing, heels that dig out not in, overeating kindness, economizing kicks I’m not officially doing NaPoWriMo because I have so much on my literary plate right now. But I took a look at Paul Brooks’ ekphrastic challenge … Continue reading Every Day We Make a Choice