sBoundaries

 won't learn from you
won't eat your food
won't buy your goods
won't drink your booze.

leave me be
won't ingest your creed
won't congest my arteries
with the air you breathe.

boundaries
blazing walls of fire
don't permit your ascendance
cut off with barbed wire

​

Zoom 

put down her sewing
listened fully
felt her heart
through the screen
paying attention
to me
sensed
fears, heard
my need
to confess
how I'm so tired
of hating our people
of our capacity
for cruelty
with such innocence,
such "nice" people,
maintain the Caste;
let me go under for a while,
leave behind
consciousness
fall asleep
to the lullaby
rock a bye
of good sincere
intentions;
but her loving
transcended all that
inner unrest;
my sister,
once
so rejected
now here
she hears
leans in, doesn't correct
or chastise
or try
to fix
just a gift of loving eyes
that I will get to see
the rest of my life
whether lonely
or plagued,
whenever big feelings,
​insanity, come my way.

Lord, Give me a Spine!

when I saw Ashley
yesterday
I knew nothing
was okay
raggedy cough
tiny shuffle-steps
black mini
skin-tight dress
fuzzy black slippers
opaque wall
in eyes...
coming down
from that house
behind mine
where she goes
to smoke
and now
at five thirty five
spinning-round
red lights
arrive
in rhythmic pulse
throb
on patterned glass
installed to thwart
prying eyes
I ask myself why
didn't I interrupt
her stupor shuffle
with a hug,
saturate her with red love,
speak to her insides?
LORD!
Give me a spine
to speak love and truth
into moments
as guided by you.
how's the world
​going to change
​if I don't love and hate,
​stay awake!





​

Dream

way up
over icy wavy water
standing
in a something 
that felt
almost not there
and you behind me
out of sight 
but I said,
"look out over the bridge
to the star blue night"
conscious of being
​so high
and looking up
graced with courage
reverent in presence
of such majesty
way above sea below
where birds splashed - 
or were they people
don't know
I shifted my feet
to remember
I was standing on something
and it was surprisingly nothing 
but also assured me
"you are held"
(with white suspenders, too)
and I relaxed
and beheld 
a skier
to the right
digging edges into ice.

​