AT A DISTANCE Gently rolling, runneled hills, Colored like a daffodil. Rivulets to ocean spill Under cloudy skies. Atmosphere of shrouding haze Rising from the surface waves, Where beneath lie ancient caves Never brought to light. Yet this sky’s a different hue From what we’re accustomed to B Yellow, not a trace of blue, Dares to […]
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WATER FOR PUERTO RICO (A Reaction to Puerto Rico’s Struggles) Dad always said, “No te ahogues en un vaso de agua.” “It means don’t drown in a glass of water,” I’d explain to my non-Spanish-speaking friends, wanting to share the magic because, for some reason, when he recited such words, I was able to hold my breath longer underwater, […]
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Dark Dream Out came the swarms of shadow things To make their dead messages, To find their story-forms, Glinting chitin delighting, Reeding the pitches. Down went the depths, encased and ethered, Numbing us to touch the greater. Down went the coils of lit signs, And made the questions dark and known, And made the answers dark and known […]
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DOG Manchester, Connecticut 1985 Long after the time had come for her to stop driving she was driving her daughter to the store in her brown car that had no power steering or power brakes, and at 85 pounds of skin and a little contraption of bones you’d think she’d be a push-over but nothing could be […]
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Edits Don’t Exist Right Now Light shines through the tiny space between shade and wall highlighting her curve and the wrinkled sheets next to her point to the bassinet turning a whole new emotion. A joy unknown now near fully realized and permanent—something to live and die for. They’re both real, breathing quietly in the next room. The hum of […]
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Bunny Day Christmas is now the Holidays. But Hanukkah is still Hanukkah and Ramadan is still Ramadan. Easter still has its name. The media needs more time to make the change.
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Glass Tanka cat paws the moth stays safe a fluttering Vishnu behind glass made braver by distance scrawny coyote its laughs echo breaking glass in his finger tip the glass splinter a million fires burning
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NEVER KNOWING WHAT HIT (Based on the painting [above] by Danell Millsap of the Scotch Cap Tsunami at Unimak Island, Alaska, on the night of April 1, 1946, where all five Coast Guardsmen manning the lighthouse were killed [see www.semparpac.org/tsunami.jpg]) I ponder the Scotch Cap Tsunami And wonder just how it felt When impact dismembered your body From […]
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TRICK OR TREAT? “Good Christians” warn that Halloween’s A festival of Satan, When nothing’s standing in between Your soul and its damnation. For centuries, they witches burned With little provocation. Eternal fire claimed they’d earned. For mercy — strangulation! The Inquisition paid you well For friend’s denunciation, Provided friend was rich as hell For Church’s confiscation. […]
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Limits You promised in front of a priest to love, honor, cherish. Then you started gambling, When you lost you started drinking. The more you lost, the more you drank. You came home drunk, yelled and cursed at me. I had to help you to bed, but you hit me. Then you started beating me. I […]
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