POEM A DAY 2019

Last Minute

I'm likely 85% ready in the
last five minutes,
then the cortisol high,
shocks me still,
I love my thoughts
slowing down in this,
time,
which is
just the panic
and then the utilitarian calm
of what's done is done,
complete and on time,
is a filter,
a boring trick,
I have no need for
a steady heart rate.

Until next time

Time to march towards next year.
I was waiting to begin, as I always do.
And now the wait is over, and such
is my great privilege.
I heard on the radio that some
do not march toward the next year,
live only in the present, and that
is the wedge against happiness.
Isn't it funny, the appeal
of deprivation.
Well, I'll tell you what
it makes me mad!
To think a life could be so hard
that one might not have the room
to say "this year blank verse but
next year, finally, a villanelle!"
I heard this on the radio,
such horror, and here I am
becoming middle-aged. Or not? Well,
I experience changes at last,
and see the gift in it,
and wish it for all my kin
and all their kin, and all
they've ever known or seen
forever, and ever, Amen.

Analysis

Poverty's patron saint
is lining the floorboards with pennies.
insulation, protection, prayer
they drop into coffers below

In Harare, there was no more bread.
Shmica needs three dollars for a loaf.
She follows me through the apartment
fishing for quarters in jars.

Skills, risks and pleasures,
Hollibaugh gained from her
working class life. Shmica says
The lights will be on tomorrow
Okay, I am sitting up here.
Glowing screen, gripping plastic.

the ins & outs

squall or no squall
i'm all for you
teeth or no teeth
there is a difference
but still
i'm on your side
i'm loving the shape of your gums
i wish you still had teeth
and yet
here you are
and can i just stop
like that
with how things are between us?

merged

let's lace our letters together
zigzagged through time
a love story told
on m&m wrappers
and photocopies
tied together with a string
plucked from the sidewalk
it had merged with

BLOODLINE

MINISTERING ANGEL

RUSH HOUR RADIO

Upstairs, living like a queen

Jacques knocking at the screen door and
I'm cooking, mustard seeds popping in the pan
Can we plug in here?
Get paid on Friday
Jacque's shifting in the shadows
Sharp sizzle. Burnt mustard.
I turn--grab the cord.
Singe.

Ochsner Primary Care Center

 EARLY DETECTION
stay vigilant, stay a
sentry of rumbles
guard at the border of every
twist, every twinge
betrayal is common
and can be deadly.

WAITING ROOM
what did you look like
when you were well?
are you well now?
am i overreacting?

PHYSICIAN'S ASSISTANT
a woman in blue comes out
to call Mr. Sims.
she is wearing a tiara.
her arms and legs push
push at, against the blue
nestle and slide across eachother
she is loving the swell of her body.
 

Mediation