-
This is What It Means (Poem)
to be here, to walk the cold streets
to enter a busy shop, to sit at the windswept market
kindness a delicate net fashioned with intent
to hold the butterfly of a smile
there it is, just now, and as you walk away
you feel the brush of wings upon your heavy heart
and let it open like a child’s outstretched hand
ready with wonder for what alights
-
What You Thought Lost Returns (Poem)
this happens at any age
some do not live to be older
you lift a cup to your mouth
but it is now filled with these
a jagged brown capybara tooth
your grandmother’s pocket knife
an arcade token for the pinball machine
a handkerchief that still smells of pomade
you pour them out onto the table
run the memories through your fingers
then realize you’ve been lost in time
your hands are wet with tea
your face wet with tears
the sound of the falling rain
washes through the night
-
Layered Tegmen (Poem)
darkness moved upon my skin
quick as the eyes of the birds that waited
perched above me in the dripping trees
fluid as the fast moving snakes that swam
to keep me company in the estuarial brine
I left my childhood on those banks
draped careless as a wornout shirt
then walked away with this unseen coating
that called out wherever I lived
the rich soil of the Delta answered
by offering the hardworn notes of the blues
those sank into my veins along with Sh’ma Yisroel
that hung in air like candle flame in the hot humid night
the mountains also gave their response
skies so lowering and gray with rain
like night itself had come to drench me with bits of coal
grimed this textured tattoo
with the wail of a fiddle wrapped around it
barbed and rusty as old fence wire
older now I wonder what next
my adamantine sediment will attract
some silver flecks to shine like laughter
some precious gems to recall love
