Inner city blues Success has many clues The answer solves what’s real No matter how you feel   Sing a simple song of life That ends the violence, starvation, and strife That lets factual knowledge now be heard Where wisdom isn’t a foreign word Sing a…

Time is neither enemy nor friend, false or true. She’s what we came for and left behind, all at once. But once is twice, and three becomes four more. I don’t believe her, arrows, lines, trajectories, and horizons, Exes and why’s, yesterdays and good byes,…

In my grandma’s kitchen was a jar of chocolate kisses grandpa filled it every week then gave a real one to the Mrs. When grandma had to stay in bed grandpa and I cooked together In my grandma’s kitchen we experimented to her displeasure I…

my son calls me Madre not because I speak Spanish or he speaks Spanish but to distinguish himself from his sisters and make our relationship unique with a word a name: Madre to name is sacred holy gives substance and connection to the one who…

Set a timer for one minute and write a stanza. Stop the timer. Clear your mind. Set a timer for 90 seconds and write another stanza. Clear your mind. Set a timer for 2 minutes and write another stanza. Go back and edit all the…

I sip my coffee carefully in the small cafe. Carefully lift my scone, cutlery and napkin in turn. I arrange them to my liking; I organise my space. I sip my coffee carefully in the small cafe. Shopping bags lean persistently against my ankles, Heavy…

After the long journey through the night through the ink black of northern Wisconsin, through the AM stations crackling polka tunes. began the Minnesota mornings of misty rivers and dewy fields, sleepy cattle at peace in the meadows. Tired, squished and impatient children wanting release…

Here, not here, Mom stares At me but sees and hears ghosts– Her handsome soldier Patient patient Mom Room must be filled with hidden Impatient spirits Cooing and soothing Promising to envelop Her indignity Speaking in tongues she Doesn’t recognize my voice Or my face…

It suited you to walk the beach in autumn; our friendship should not finish – you’d decided – in the bright ebullience of a summer’s day. You knew you’d find a better moment in the clustering shadows of an October afternoon so you waited patiently…

on the 4th of July after the parade all of the children gathered in the field on the north side of the fairgrounds together this ground was safe, for children to run and reach and scramble chosen for its safety surrounded by a fence keeping…