lemon rind

Don't lemon rind me:

Act like I'm so bitter 

and sour;

I must be diluted 

with your sweetness.

You are sugar,

You are water,

Praise be!

Don't Placade me

With words like

Zest.

I am not

Garnish,

Wedge, Debris,

Scraps,

of the lemon

You got

and had to make

Lemonade from.

Praise be!

look here missy

To be seen is

both a blessing

and a curse.

Invisible girls

never get hurt,

but never get

loved either.

to the eight year old boy I saw emotionally abused at the Chinese restaurant today

I offer up the sad, polite smile

adults so often do for kids,

That says "I see you pain,

but can't do anything." We

are bound by public decorum.

Like Oliver with his dirty face,

hands outstretched, please sir

I want some more. Some more

affection, more acknowledgement.

You lock sullen gaze with me.

But I'm just a downtrodden

child too, you see? I'm just like

you. Don't let my body fool you.

Next, I'm in the bathroom of the

resturaunt where we are eating

tables so close we feel each

others' pain and the tight throat,

hot tears and acidic waste I flush

out and away. I can't today and

probably not tomorrow.

I'm sorry, kid.

homestead

How many lemon trees do I need

to plant, the minimum number of

chickens and goats, and should

I plant carrots and tomatoes or

peppers, lettuce, and potatoes?

How big must I make the compost

pile, and do I need to be full organic?

Tell me the square footage of

the house I should buy or

should build, wall color, number

of windows, doors, rooms to

fill our lives together. I just

need to know what it takes

to make you mine.

living lie

Some lies are so pervasive that you actually own them. You believe it's your life, your personality, and summers in your soul. winters it migrates to your mind and it's all you think about. If you are quiet long enough, you may hear it festering in your gut. But mostly you never notice. It's so prevalent, you just don't see. No one tells you about the stench, because it's just part of you now. To change is to no longer be you so you just want lie. Do lies, say lies, breathe lies and on your grave we etch a lie in stone. If you ever become anything, the books are just lies. Even school children reading for history class, can smell the rotting lie.

fascinating you

My heart grows colder,

the crawlspace smaller

where I can keep my

feelings, deep away

from you.

To be screamed in

My chest, underneath

without noise to

fill our home.

Is it all in my head

make it all up,

just the dumb child

I fear I may be.

Or am I crazy instead,

to walk on tiptoes

centipede belly

to floor

scurry around

my life in the wall cracks

For what seems to be

For you.

inside out

I live in a neighborhood

full of big happy houses,

mailboxes dressed for the

holidays, and kids playing

running through sprinklers.

I can't help but wonder

if the people inside are

as happy inside as it looks

outside...but probably not

cause I live here too and

am never, could be, not

inside matching out.

speak vietnam

Baby, talk Vietnam to me
in your sleep of charlie 
and charred bones and
marijuana shake 'em up
joints. Cry for them to
shut up, Yell "Get Down!"
over sirens only you hear.

Oh speak Vietnam
in your sleep to me.
whisper all you secrets,
you keep tucked away
behind ears and knees,
folded neat or littered.

Big grizzly bear,
cry big Vietnam tears
in your sleep to me.

Women

Some of us are
wild ponies,
running just to be free.

And some of us are
thoroughbreds,
forced by design,
to be that way.

drama and truama

It's how puppies play nip a little bit, on the fly, and then roll over and plod away. That's just how puppies are.

And it's His Girl Friday,

It's a Wonderful Life,

It's Norman Rockwell,

It's normal somehow.

That I, and you, we,

when we get rough

and bite too hard,

We may roll over 

but never plod away.

It lingers in our minds and

poisons our neurons

and pops up all the time 

because that's just how we are.