Pomposity

Coffee should be rich and black 

cars and homes clean 

seams should be finger pressed 

before stitching

pillows should be fluffed just so 

steaks pink and lean

yellow crested birds like poems

without rhythm or rhyme

exist to preened

and children unheard if seen 

may seem rather mean 

but these are things I know are right 

for a snob that I have been 

RGB

Rose amongst the thorns, your decisions 
Guide justice for future generations to 
Build the democratic foundation of equality

9-11

It was a Tuesday 

but it felt like a Friday 

the week came to a close

as the world shut down.

Shock, fear, and disbelief 

swirled into suspicion, anger,

despair. 

The dust would not settle.

No child could breathe.

Parents held them tight

told them things would be alright

and plotted revenge.

Sundancer Moves On

For everything there is a reason 

Sundancer carried us to adventures 

cradled us through hurricane force winds

ice storms and blizzards 

for everything a purpose

protected us from bear

allowed us to grow as a couple

taught us to work together 

and a season; Sundancer

let us camp, live, and travel

meeting life long friends

find our a new place to call home

now time for another family

another life 

with teenagers

and grandparents

New Mexican Ghazal

Full moon rises amber upon golden augmentations of the night

Autumnal ascent, Fire enters navy blue of night

Umber, ruby, amethyst, against marcasite

Colors captured in skies of day and night

Turquoise, carnelian, onyx, silver fetishes call

Desert jewelry for sale at a empty roadside stand at night

Stars glow in shattered shadowed escalations

The hills backdrop plains like curtains at night

Yellow and red flowering fruit upon fishhook barrels

along desert washes under full moon long shadowed night

Lockdown

The shrillness of the stillness is sickening to the quickening,
distancing from the potential of the dilemma of influenza,
no corona like lymphoma or pneumonia symptoms for me.
Covid novel eroded misquoted twaddle
this systemic epidemic Is pandemic.
The virus like phthirus affects our gyrus.
So, in our lockdown don’t break down instead let’s take down
the virus in isolation and filtration for the duration.

* this poem first appeared @ Pendemic.ie

A Poem not yet Written

A voice echos in my head
a heavenly choral refrain
chanting words from a poem
not yet written.
Marcel is a soft spring scent
an escaped ethnic flavor of San Jose
and I am an essential worker in these dire days.
Echoing despair singing bitterness
emojis might suffice in the retell
but that’s not what poetry is for.
So, when the cat gets your tongue
don’t let it eat your lunch.
Fleeting friendship of ideas
rear their ugly heads in anonymity
in yet another circle I am free
from that which holds me.
The door has sprung and exit
is allowed out of the choir’s chapel.