Black and White with a Touch of Gray Crystal clear and black and white Things seem so cut and dry And yet, sometimes that is not quite The case before one’s eyes More times than not, a touch of gray Is accurate to view As…

There are days I do not write a single poem quietly measuring my worth in affidavits I have carefully drafted the words to wound or give relief. The seriousness of being a lawyer Is not to be taken with a pinch of salt We march…

Prompt for Hour Twelve – Text Prompt Closets are a big deal inside a house, but also metaphorically. One can be in the closet, or come out of it, for example, But they are also places of safety and joy for small children, or where…

Hour Twelve Pause and reflect for cause and effect. They ask me to wait as I watch the hands of a clock hold time more than I have been- no rush, just wait biding my time in the midst of rhyme They tell me, “Wait.”…

a brother  I can’t believe Ryan found him & not me , not that it matters. The fact he’s found is far more Important than who found him. But he’s thin so so thin. Muffled noise Beneath my arms: Stell I can’t breathe. Right ,…

“Closeted Threats”   Trigger Warning ~ sexual abuse   at the tender age of five unknowing, in the ways of  the sexual needs of men   the attention, was different my own mother, absent in her own hell I’m sure   the light burned high above…

Bolero does something to me when it plays I am un-Ravelled resting my head upon my father’s knee soothed and calmed at peace with the monster that lives in me. The lilting tune, the rustle of drums edge this old heart like that striped shirt in…

Boxes of memories on every shelf. Whole lives she’d packed away. She didn’t dare open them. She had moved on. But she couldn’t face the loss. Until one January in the cold light of the first full moon. She emptied the closet built a fire…

Walls of glass, Doors of iron, Nothing can keep me from you. Screams of fear, Tears of shame, Nothing can make me forget. Splintered wood, Deafening silence, Nothing could prepare me. The deafening silence, From the tears of shame, Break through the glass walls. And…

Hour Eleven How many grains of sand on a beach? How many minds can one teach? How many atoms make up this land? How often should each soul lend a hand? How many leaves fall in the autumn? How many have been beaten down by…