Magnolia Sweet

Skin leaching brown hues like fragments of oozing figs gone badWindows reacting with endless weeping of humidity trappedVases with parched flowers thought to bewitch and beguile usAre eaten by dust mites exploding with toxic, endless self-shameShrouded in enigmas an ill room of wicked waywardness cameCrack by unnerving crack she brought it down with her blame […]

Regrets of a Southern Death

gazing at her photo as if measures of time were echosof the rapid beat of a hummingbird’s wingfor if he dared to linger upon the fading vision that was once hereven a second longer, her death would occur all over againexcept for his memory, she was salt mixed with brown ash, bone andfour long screws […]

Ripe Figs, Mustard Greens, and Dance

lamenting for a taste of fresh figs from childhood trees where, when dipped in sugar,they left a fragrant and honeyed flavor upon a young girl’s tongue seeing elephant ears surrounding the outdoor porch where mom would set a table smelling black-eyed peas cooked with salt pork, mustard greens, and collards fried hush puppies with […]

My Poem Published in the Tiny Seed Literary Journal

My poem in the “Facing the fire” edition I Fear The Dragon upside down is my worldly existence; my skin’s coating stinks of fear like a piece of chicken dusted heavy with self-rising flour consumed with my utter dread of the red dragon who breathes fire her hair brittle from bleaching, broken blood vessels speckle […]

My New Featured Post on Spillwords Press NYC, “Abuse Montage”

I wrote this poem about the abuse I suffered as a child from a child’s perspective. Many isolated children during this challenging time are at even greater risk. Children who suffer significant abuse often look and behave perfectly in public. abuse montage dark shadows are the sting of my lifememory clouded by waves of strifetiny […]

Lonely Employment

you ride your bike, crying down the hard dirt roadyour morning spent killing fliestheir price, a penny a carcasshanding me my money through the soul of their drunken hollowyou wonder, would they spend a penny for meI buy hot balls in a brown paper bag with my penniesthey torture my tongue, geographical as it wasit […]

Monsters Exist

small was the wooden boat where I layin the pond of my youthred was the color of the water each dayfor my tears carried the truth sunshine filled the boat where secrets hidmy pole and bobber bright redkept me company, as I was five, a good kidI feared they wished I was dead monsters did […]

Lockless

Keyless is my lock, yet I readily surrender myself completely,to my thinning skin with shadows of whispers and prickling flesh.Secrets buried beneath a stratum of my dried and cracking crust,as my haunting heart hungers for a yielding stillness, I can truly trust,until my essence is so sweetly scented fading back into ash and dust. Struggling […]

Climbing Trees

Sweat oozed from my pores as I ran toward the barnSand spurs stung the bottoms of my fleeing feetAs I sprinted wildly toward Margie’s southern farmI prayed my drunk daddy would do me no harm In the woods, I had played with dollies and climbed treesThe big three, one with a treehouse I had visited […]

Stream of Tears

Smooth white rocks line the familiar bedA sad child sits close beside me by the streamProviding me a harbor where I come to scream. Yabbies, mountain lobster or mudbugsCrawdads swimming against Nature’s mirrorI point them out to the girl who is now nearer. Appalachian bristle fern surrounds usNo one will attend my nursing graduationI share […]