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 […]

Making Eggs

Tied up, beat up, washcloth stuffed into her bruised mouthTwo legs and two arms tied to bedposts in a messy fashionMuffled screams came from their room quite a frightful sightHow was I to tell my mom a normal, love you, and good night Why didn’t he just shut the door and save me from this […]

Hope for Tomorrow

Hope is an open bottle catching rain, When thirst comes without water. A prayer that ceases any child’s pain. The crevice that brings forth a flower, Land that is dried and longs for rain, Life in the desert after a vital shower. In the airport both the smiles and tears, As we come and go […]

Beautiful Young Pin Cushion

Have you ever sensed it The poisonous sting of another? Piercing clothes, skin, muscle and bones Needles poking, pushing deeply into your eyes Looking away does naught to soothe the tender flesh. Burning bushes of anger deep inside you suddenly awakened Fraught with insecurities laid there deep-rooted by another And intense is the passion of […]

Her Hands Remembered

Wafer-thin like parchment paper was her aged and petite hands, In utter awe, I watched them fashion such a dance with magic. Smooth was the full, ample wooden bowl from a long history, Of the artful formation of her famously yummy buttermilk biscuits. Fingers old and steady, so familiar with each curve as she readies […]

The Power of Smell

When I was in Elementary School, I was to attend PS 104. This unforeseen and dreadful move was swift, like a thunderous cloud burst assaulting the unexpecting Carolina blue skies. It came like a freight train through my little garage room with the red concrete floor in the middle of the night. My father was […]

Merry-Go-Round

On a merry-go-round of perception on a tall prancing, painted horse, Shifting patterns of movement and thoughts are fleeting swiftly by, Recesses of memories, flying by with odd faces, I try to stay the course. Tightening my grip on leather straps, I can remember those days gone by, A small, speedy heart is pumping, as […]

Saying Goodbye

Like the tiniest finch in the curve of our rain gutter The roof protects the eggs and nest which lay there, Shallow and cup-sized is the female’s safe bird’s nest, Where her little head pops up until even she must rest. Her chirps, music to my ears as she sings and sleeps, Digest and regurgitates […]

The Military Man – My Father

Lost for wise and fair words as I struggle sadly trying hard to understand, This five-foot-four, striking, but mostly drunk this lonely military man. Before his sixteenth birthday, he took off to the horrid deadly Korean war, Crippled was this young soldier inside and out as the memories still tore. Dad, would pick up the […]