Gato Blanco

"Don't lick your stitches,"
I sigh, firm as if you understand me,
sweet like a best friend would,
but you are cat.

Long-bodied, stretched
and slender tail, white sleek fur,
the golden eyes stare me down
wise and fierce.

It is me who needs chiding,
it is me who is student
grasping to know you
but I don't.

Pied Piper

I'm an orphan, urchin child
dirty face, tear-streaked
matted rat hair.
Lost, I wonder.

Enter you, debonair
crass and blunt tongue
wild-eyed
monster truck revs
magician.
Weaving your
charming tales.

So I follow,
not blindly but thoughtfully
consciously.
I adjust my blinders-
"Lead the way!"

Eight

 "Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all."

I can't focus;
the list is too long.
you start crossing out names of people
you've never even known.
I'm protestin'
I ruined lives, you hear me?
that doesn't go away with
your pen, marking out whole years
of sorrow and bile
Then-
You crossed out her name
I say,
that's ok, that one name,
she's dead, I cant fix that.
and you said
that's ok dear
this is the first-time
ever
in this life
you don't have to fix anyone
or anything
only be willing.

Husband

He sleeps, snores reverberates in and out,
in thank, out you, in thank, out you.
Crochet hook fingers loop tightly.
I feel it through and through,
I love you, so I tip-toe and I pitter-pat
to the kitchen so you don't wake.

The Malingerer

Thanksgiving eve and you were in my dreams

you sprawled in a bed, arms angular and bent back

stretched out, whipping tentacles from a beetle thorax chest

I take the awkward embrace, as I took you,

like I took so much else, I take it into me.

It is how I was trained to be.

I woke up, drowning in cold sweat and guilt,

and stuffed the emotions down, with turkey,

with fear, with the shame of my own breath, 

the vapor tendrils which flow from mouth. 

As I had diligently learned, studied,

That night, my dreams were of birthing babies,

but I woke up in relief, to know

that I was never taught how.

nearly an aerie

I was weak as all get out, not beat down by life
but ripe and palatable
like a peach
perfect to pick.

I say he swooped in, he says I plucked him up
clutched him hard
hot in my talons
and held on.

We shrug-What's the worth in being right,
when we still
grasping and clinging
oh so tight?

when I thought I lost my soul, but geography brought home

The cold, mid-April snow winds sounded a deafening death knell,
as my Hoosier love screeched and hissed, deflating basketball
and corroded and molded, as untended cornfields like to do
but I parry the assault with ardor for the sun at high decibel.
Florida, stay true, for I am coming for you!