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My Sister, the Serial Dater
I told her not to go to the meet-up with Red Dragon 143. But my sister was the Queen of Stubborn, and she gave me the slip. To this day, I couldn’t believe I fell for the old pillows-under-the-blanket trick.
If only I...
Reunion Introspection
Life at 75
My silver mane shows
Natural beauty of age
With warts, lines and all
My silver mane speaks
Of struggle and redemption
With passion and faith
On departed classmates
Gone forever now
Memories we celebrate
Lives well lived and loved
On our humanity
Human lives deserve
Peace that is socially just
Fight for it we...
Amen
IN A HOLY ROOM, THE PRESIDENT PROCLAIMS: My fellow countrymen, I have always sought to protect you. The government used to be filled with corrupt men and women, the kind that bled you dry with taxation and left you to drown in typhoons....
The Pruning and Other Poems
The Pruning
Deadhead
the ground
where petals lay,
not the blossomed
branch, rivered
& riveted
this garden,
this square
of pear & pine.
Unlock
the pruning knife,
cut the roses
back to thorn,
back to distel,
to angled light.
Be frugal,
light-handed,
bent shrubs
are rain-heavy,
grit-weary,
saddled with
the days
of May’s
cloud weeping.
This June
cuts back
to essential
bone, the boughs
watered
& wounded.
Fold your knees
before the muted
ground, listen
to the...
The Nature of the Beast
THE MOTORIZED BOAT DELIVERED AN ear-splitting growl, then a moan, and we were aground — the steer man, his co-pilot, and I — in the shallow water. I grumbled loud when I realized that we would have to wade the rest of the...
My Magnificat
In the Marian month of October
Magnificent madness
My savage spirit you stunned
Bones leap out to dance
Something inside
You touched and exploded
Unleashing the torrent of one hundred springs
That rush to embrace
The vineyards lost in my memory
O blessed be
Walls you have broken down
Oppressors you pinned to...
