The dead don’t lie
they aren’t sleeping
never passed away
crossed over
departed
nor do they rest in peace   [Read more…]

Stumbling out to see
fishing for a way through the hole
in a telephone booth

Time calls
from reflective glass
to the wheelbarrow dangling over
rusty swing set
  [Read more…]

Stay humble
the rain takes names

Time does not tell the truth:

It doesn’t count.

Not a mark made
the ground won’t swallow
no part of earth
that doesn’t float on fire
  [Read more…]

Salty sunlight
peels paint off doors

Exposes wood from trees
thirsty for the shade
they sloshed onto infertile ground   [Read more…]

We whirl
on turning earth
circling sun
until the buzzing hive
hums honeycomb light

The universe expands
as we contract
into needles of pirouetting grass
where feet float
and poems write themselves
on the colorless pigment of waves   [Read more…]

A white shirt
dangles from the window
a suitcase
waits 20 years to be loaded into the car

No magnetic
sense of direction
just unread signs

The gold hand
knocks
until rust shuts it down   [Read more…]

I took off my shoes
sat down in the darkness
I had been running away from
since dawn

Now that my eyes
have adjusted to night’s numerous shades
I see my effort to keep pace with sun
illuminated shadows

I don’t need to race against
the light of my darkness
any longer   [Read more…]

A tree
doesn’t know it clings to cliff

Does not feel
the axe of a wave
resonate from trunk to green fingertips

It isn’t mesmerized
by the sun braided sea
that moves me to hold onto clay lumps
for dear life

A tree doesn’t know
everything on earth is
falling

Falling
in love   [Read more…]

Bless this house
built by many hands
holding together one generation after another

Light incense to elevate
its collective memory from dusty stairwells
and attics

Keep fresh flowers on tables
to give neglected alcoves the color
of imagination

Bless this house with water
to see ourselves clearly reflected on windows
because every room
is a living organism
that requires upkeep and restoration   [Read more…]

TRAUMA
(Inspired by the women of the Armenian Genocide who were tattooed by their captors).

The body remembers
contusions the epidermis forgets

Recounts kisses
forcibly sealed within lips

Carry’s the weight
of wounds
time hastily erases

Feels the blunt force
of each hand
tied behind back

Bleeds internally
until the needle of a voice
punctures skin
with the name of the transgressor.   [Read more…]

I threw the cross into water
to drown the acolyte nailed into wood
by priests of an encrusted religion
so I might live

The relic
raised from shrouded seabed
by hands of swimmers
was a burden lifted from my shoulders

An epiphany of vision
poetry read
in every face
  [Read more…]

The arctic air
condensed spoken words
into fog

The sedentary froze
in chairs
  [Read more…]