Do We?

Do We?

hope isn't in the facts on these pages

it's in the smile on the faces of these sages

the preschooler who doesn't know who is in his family

eviction notices on his doorstep since the day he was born

love can't live here anymore

barely a teenager she had her uncle's son

her mama looked on

as they took her grandson away

she asked-

why do you want to keep your baby, baby?

everything will leave you anyway.

hope isn't in the facts on these pages

it's in the smile on the faces of these sages

they called him The Fighter

scars lined his young face: wrinkles for skin too lived in

anyone who really looked could see-

he was only trying to be.

they called him The Fighter, but his grin was wide

at the sight of the first cake bought just for him

they called him The Fighter

I think they were right.

hope isn't in the facts on these pages

it's in the smile on the faces of these sages

these refugees are everywhere

holding a new foster mom's hand

a grasping asking- will this one be nice?

will this one be home?

the hunger doesn't go

we have all wondered if we would be missed

families cracked, broken, scattered

leaving us alone on special days

wondering where we belong

wondering if we mattered

do we?

Say This or That From Night to Day

the hardest apology to accept
is the one that you will never get
the easiest thing might be
to give a reflexed apology
and yet it does seem
it is the hardest thing to mean.


say this or that from night to day
it is what you do, not what you say
that will convince me
you believe your apology.

Durango

Small migrants stretching their feet far

Father is driftwood 

drowning down a diluted flag

He cannot hold them safe

What would you do?

They skinned his childhood

Put a gun in his hand

Kill or die, kid

And he did

They tell me

There are no victims here

All I see are tombstones 

ticking for exoneration dates

Mama's lullaby echoes

Don't Look Back.

They sold her young

The price too low for the foal

Just another girl

To be stuffed into the mattress

To be shoved into the wall

There is no better gauge

than by how we grow the little children

Joule

maybe we dream in the 4th dimension
I know too many who cannot dream
fireworks to celebrate soldiers
who can't stop hearing them
look at the birds scatter like shrapnel
I don't know what it is we are celebrating
it is not peace
I never thought you could be so pink
so yellow
I shouldn't have told him you'd be there
boys aren't as resilient as we need them to be
dress them in uniforms and put them out
on his right is disappointment
his left is surrender
I have not given him enough armor
I'll never know which is sadder
circumstance or his acceptance
there is no equation for sadness
in the 4th, on the 4th
silence would have erupted
a quantum plunge into possible
when we grow stronger than our weapons
when we don't need anyone to protect us

that's when we will meet again.

coup de foudre

we laid pennies on tracks with our fat kid fingers
isaacs for our abraham; my heart was always something like this


watermelon juice foamed on his chin, his eyes wild and rabid
this is why today I still do not care for the taste


when night holds me, covers me, invades me
I am always ripely spread and bee-tickles frightened


my heart was always something like this

Répétez

Oui, je veux apprendre
répétez après moi
oui, je veux apprendre avec tu
the slide of your neck
it is a sound we once heard from the stage
scène,
théâtre,
étape,  

no, nous ne répétant pas ce
est-ce quelque chose marat se mourrait pour?
se battrait pour
pourquoi piaf buvait seul
shirley, our sweetheart, ribboned and gifted
we worship our one dimensional celebrity
teach me piaf's vibrato
marat's bravado
dire à moi en français, léché d la langue sur les dents

tanka

this is how I melt
the boy's little hand in yours
a kiss after a night
not nearly ever enough
your happy sigh coming home


two trees by my house
lovers since the dawn of time
branches brush like hair
one whispers let me see you
the other giggles leaves