Poems
wisps of sand on the redwood deck, small waves break steadily, guests feel the spray. Conversation flows: books to read kids at camp tennis scores. Maria serves: penne with pesto lobster salad home- made bread French Rose, not too sweet. Hibiscus flowers float Inside crystal pitchers. Fresh bass, grilled with parsley, lemon…
Crowds of thoughts crash together spin out of control. Unbridled imagination carry expectations to high heights to push them off the edge. Inside history’s scribble lessons unravel. Pointless not to see when you’re told “The morgues are full” you must distance from the self you thought…
roll forward to tell stories pulled from the past. Hoping they crash far out, their high crests folding dragging detritus deep. Instead they approach, break quietly and wash history to my feet.
as if memory can be pulled like the root of a broken tooth. Coronis was an ancient beauty a subject of Apollo’s wrath punished with a plague. Tear a page from Ovid, the poems fall apart. Elisabeth’s throne is for ceremony. People respect the Crown. Mexico’s culture is deep. The…
l when London’s mothers sent children to be sheltered in a shire while sirens wailed and flood lights chased planes that dropped bombs that whistled and muffled cries below. Today there’s no such din. A shadow stalks, no matter day or night. It’s quiet except for bird-song and music in…
The pulse quickens fever elevates and cough attacks. Fearful expectations press the chest. Sighs of surrender are loose to plot a curve shaped like a mountain or heart drawn in relief. This poem can be found in New York Stories along…
Concrete piers extend like grey tongues between splintered pilings that once moored proud tall ships with canvass sails and iron stacks. Freighters filled the harbor unloading cargo from decks for tugs to push upriver. Then bright minds discovered abandoned docks, furtive corners where tides splashed dirty shoals as if…