Everyday Stories

January 1, 2025

Solstice

Rain falls

On Christmas lights-

Like a winter

Kaleidoscope

Tonight is

The shortest night

Of the year

Everything will be

Brighter

From here on out

There’s a Bobby pin

Inside the barrel

Of the washer-

A solitary claw

Scrapping

The lining

Like a shovel

Eventually everything

That holds up

These tiny universes

Will tire

A neighbor

Walks by-

Training her dog

“Good boy”,

She says,

“Who’s the best boy?”

Maybe

All we are

Is ghosts

And resolutions-

Waiting for direction

Wanting to believe

That we are good

I must learn

To fall back in love

With my life

January 30, 2025

Inauguration Day

Snow fell

During the night-

Everything looked

Different

In the morning

Like someone

Had rearranged

The furniture

All of the Juncos

Perch outside-

Gathering beneath

A bone colored sky

Half the world

Is on fire,

Half in ice-

These are

The signs

Of our times

These are the

Consequences

Of our crimes

These are

The chimes

Tick Tock,

Tik Tok

We are a circus

Do you trust

The sword thrower

With your life?

February 15, 2025

White America

The American Dream

Isn’t cute

Co-signing

Is not a love language

The constitution

Is not an Etch-a-Sketch

And our allegiance

Is liberty and justice

For all-

Not for some

Colonization

Does not

Make you a king

And giants

Build ramps

Not rockets

This is what happens

When the president

Picks the teams in gym

One story

Is not a library-

It’s a cautionary tale

When empires

Are made of mirrors

All you see are fools

Who we are

And who we love

Are twin pockets

That make every dress

Better

Identity is not

A reversible fabric

It’s true

That women are kind

But we are also fierce

You can be both

In this lifetime-

You can love this world

And still hate Nazis

When it’s easier

For a child

To own a gun

Than a book…

When the history of chains

Is written by locksmiths

And not Black American wrists…

When laws determine

What I create

May one day kill me…

We will not be

Great again

We will all drown

In the Gulf of America

April 25, 2025

Daylight Savings

Saturday night -

The kids are rallying

For Women’s Rights

Down the hall

Tonight only the clocks

Are moving forward

Two old men are talking

In the supermarket aisles -

Between them they have

Two boxes of cereal

And a bag of oranges

I drive home with

Temporary things

In my backseat-

Past the field

Of Queen Anne’s lace-

Which is as copper now

As a penny

Youth is a season-

There is no beauty

Without weathering

I think of the anesthetist

And how she laid

Her hands upon my face

And told me

Everything was going

To be alright-

And I believed her

I listen for the sounds now

Of spoons rattling in sinks

And Canada Geese

Flying overhead

To remind me

That I’m awake

Progress

Is an inheritance

It is not enough

To take up space-

We must raise

Architects

April 25, 2025

Forsythia

The day after

The surgery

The coffee tasted

Awful-

I drank it

Because bad coffee

Is better than none

That’s not the case

With politicians

There’s a sign

On the highway

That says

“Jesus or Hell”-

There has to be

Something in between

Maybe there’s a

Roadside stand

Where sinners

Sell flowers

The forsythia

In the alleyway

Is so golden

It cannot stay

The wings

Of the swallows

Flying over

The meadow

Are so blue,

They’re iridescent

There’s an old world

That exists

Only in my memories

Now-

A new world is coming

Once you discover

The strand of hair

Wrapped around

The baby’s toe

You can begin

The undoing