Refuge

fuzzy warm slippers
comfortable and cozy
for the brown recluse

Photo credit: Jamiesrabbits, via flickr // CC BY 2.0

Before we were married ...

standing in your living room,
terrified
because you see me
and still love me


Photo credit: Tim & Selena Middleton, via flickr // CC BY 2.0

Simple brilliance

dandelion suns
a galaxy in my yard
their smiles radiant

Photo credit: Ruthanne Reid, via flickr // CC BY 2.0

Crowd Control

I can’t babysit them like I used to;
there’s no time to set them down gently.
When I get interrupted, as I often do,
my poems don’t queue neatly
like patrons at the post office.

Rather, they are a raucous crowd:
unruly soccer fans, kicking,
clawing, screaming at one another,
clamoring for my attention,
desperate to be noticed.

I hear them strangling now,
words congealing on the page,
stagnant as a blood clot.
Scabbing over, they will harden.
The leftovers wait to be picked off,
wait, impatiently, for their reprieve.


Photo credit: John Martinez Pavliga, via flickr // CC BY 2.0
(I realize this is a crowd of football fans, not soccer fans, but they certainly look raucous to me!)