Observance

I threaded your words
as the birds do in springtime
and made a space for you.
And when the rains came
I waited for you to return
to that place.
I waited.

I clutch them again, your words.
Tightly bound, even still they
stretch out toward me
call me by all my pretty names
tether my heart with longing
and I wish
you’d had the courage
to set them free
to turn them into the sky
to live them
to spare me them.

I watch the flames engulf
the black swirls
of what... read more

A thunderous boom cracks and echoes
through my classroom
but out the window we see blue sky.
“It’s Fleet Week,” says Jose, when his tablemate looks scared.
“It’s just fighter pilots playing around,” he reassures us.

I go on with my lesson
and try to pretend that these sounds
are okay, that they are part of the fun
of living in a big city.
But inside
I am shaking.

I am reminded in this moment of how much you loved being a fighter, one of the elite,
and how once you turned to ... read more

To let something fall away -
to shed a leaf
or watch a rainbow's
diminishing end
is a small thing.

And it seems there is no price
at all to pay
when the fruit
turns from green to red
and drops from the sky,
quietly melting back into the earth -
something lost and something gained.

To see myself
in recent seasons
is much like that.
I unfurled from a limb,
my reach tenacious -
out and out,
knowing all along
that parting
was part of the keeping.
I turned -
mostl... read more

Listen

The fish were a little disappointing. Well, not exactly disappointing – they were certainly pretty – all the colors of the rainbow, just like she’d seen in the books about Hawaii her mother picked up from the library. Surprisingly, they ate the frozen peas, swarming around her and plucking them right out from between her fingers. They were dazzling as they spied on her, holding almost perfectly still, one-eyed in their schools, coming close enough to touch then darting away ... read more

you were not born a butterfly or a daisy. you were born at the top of the food chain, and innocence isn't an option.

you don't get to be perfect. you don't get to be pure. you don't get to live in a world where everything you do is righteous and respectable. that's not this world. and maybe not even the next.

but along with your opposable thumbs you were given the ability to reason. you were granted the capacity to see into the pool of human experience and, from the very tip of your fi... read more