The Poetry Marathon

Firefly I saw you  last night in my brother’s clutch.

You lit up the evening without a bottle to illuminate your perfect shade of green glow.

Earlier in the day I no longer wore a mask when I walked. I was much more strict in Seattle, yet here in Michigan I only wear it when I go to stores or in hospitals when I am blessed to have a N95.

This summer I crave porridge as I long for the sweet taste in my mouth of coconut milk, vanilla, cinnamon, and cornmeal. My favorite comfort food morning, noon, and night.

Reminiscing back to working this year I think fondly of how Zoom helped me to connect my students in 2020 and join over 150 teachers in several weekly meetings.

This summer I did not allow lethargy to be a byproduct of heat or defeat.

Most impressively, I realized that treelines this year are more beautiful than before because we have two bird families as guests near my brother’s home. I’ve taken a picture in my car trying to capture your background to share this year.

Last but not least, I was reminded that the Heat is not a team that I like as much as the Bad Boys of the past. This is why I will always be a Piston’s fan in the era of the Palace which is no more. I saw you being built just as I saw you being taken away this summer as I drove by you each of these four weeks.

Strange is the new normal.

Cottage is how I like my cheese… just like Provolone, Swiss, or Havarti. One of which I had on the pizza my mother made today.

I pray for respect love and freedom

While the world celebrates victory, I hold my forehead in shame.

The UK is banning the US.

Parties are no longer condoned.

It is as if we look at the heavens with sunglasses on,

still in awe of just how curious and foolish we humans truly are.

A call to mature.

A time to feel the impact.

A time to allow the trees and the earth to flourish.

We no longer follow the time conscious schedule that we thought ran the world.

A  call to change.

A time where we finally can feel the unrest.

BLM is not just a trend, is 400 years not enough to understand the distrust.

A time to look at our health.

Forced to shelter in place.

Masks are a matter of taste.

In 1920 we had a scare

and in 2020 we are back again.

Handshakes have gone out of favor.

Elbow bumps and dabbing sneezes are more on trend.

We second guess a hug and try not to drink out of someone’s mug.

Europe is banning US citizens from entering their borders.

We are dropping the 3rd World country label finally realizing that our civility is being questioned when we can allow immigrant children to be put in cages.

So life as we know it will not ever be the same and in this no one finds no shame as long as we atone for the past and step forward boldly knowing that we are as strong as our weakness.

And this is not the least of what we choose to contest.

Productivity

is the best when you make it

your goal everyday.

Stars in the sky are mirrored on the waters below that float a single solitary boat. Mountains transposed hold up two sides of the page. I do not lay adrift on a canoe sailing into an abyss. I am no Ophelia from Othello.  Flowers adorn my hair and are as beautiful as the thoughts that are dripping from my temple where curls fall as natural as gravity. I am nowhere in sight unless you see the light that illuminates my being. Are you open to a new way of seeing?  I am like the trees on the earth, more plentiful than the stars that line the milky way even though you can’t see me. I am a magnet and my light is being led to the sunshine in the distance. We two are one in the same.

4. 2020

We had such hopes. We still do. The predictions were too perfect to be true. Valentine’s on a Friday, to plan the perfect overnight date. Cinco de Mayo on Tuesday. Did we set the bar too low? Only looking to celebrate holidays that we reduced to chocolate and tacos trying to fill our bellies and not our souls.

A new decade. Despite the political turmoil we felt hopeful. New year new dreams to wash off the dust of 2019, we sought the feel of a jubilee year, perhaps hoping to finally lift off the mask of the past to see things as they are not only as we hoped.

2020 proves to be the unveiling we needed, not at all what we wanted.

2. Stone Love

I fell in love long ago with sacred geometry or was it geology. Throughout the expression of time modern society came to hunger for diamonds that would be created through pressure not as rare as rubies, but still just as sought after. Colors compressed into gemstones. Smooth as glass. Iridescent too. Light Refraction. All we would come to worship in an attempt to escape and express a temporal love that would try to impersonate infinity.

Properties that would become an obsession in man’s attempt to heal a wounded heart. So we then looked to other precious stones like rose quartz or malachite, blue lapis, carnelian remnants of ancestors of the past like Egyptians, Jade from our Asian Brethren, and Turquoise worn by our South American Sisters.  All in an attempt to sooth a broken heart and spirit.

We pay homage to an earth we love and like to take from without any intention of repayment. We wonder and awe at the natural beauty, yet we still look for answers to human ailments we don’t understand.

Ailments that the most advanced pharmacies can not cure. While we were focused on curing cancer, aids, and diabetes it was love that we needed most.  Hate, racism, and greed we realize that no medicine can cure. Yet, we still search the ends of the earth, inside and out; not afraid to venture to the greatest depths of the sea beyond the Mariana Trench traveling to the outer limits of the universe to find a cure we are unable to see lives in the core of the human heart. We are the cure, but like the humans we are we will always look outside before we look within.  Stone love is all we possess. We are stubborn, we are hungry, and thirsty to wake, knowing that our hearts are as hard as stone.

1. 1. Recipe For a Perfect Summer Moment

    

   1. Warm Sun
   2. Arnold Palmer
   3. Tide & Downy
   4. Breeze
   5. Wrought Iron Chair
   6. Peace & Calm

   Take all parts and mix equally. All senses will be activated if the breeze along with peace and calm are interspersed intermittently. Then to add a special touch include equal parts of Tide Clean and Downy Fresh in the middle of the day. Next find a seat on a wrought iron chair upright or laying down comfortably while enjoying the cool breeze. Lastly, don’t forget to take sips of the refreshing Arnold Palmer in between by finishing off with equal parts black tea and lemon or lime juice sweetened by brown sugar under  the warm sun.   A moment in time captured in a postcard memory. Scratch and sniff! This is summer at its best. Enjoy a moment of pure bliss.