Category Archives: POETRY

January 30, 2023 · 12:20 pm

NIGHT SWEATS

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UKRAINIAN NIGHTS

Shattered dreams last night.

Tossed and turned with all my might.

No safe space in sight.

AMERICAN NIGHTS

Shattered dreams last night.

Tossed and turned with all my might.

No safe space in sight.

AFRICAN NIGHTS

Shattered dreams lat night.

Tossed and turned with all my might.

No safe space in sight.

ASIAN NIGHTS

Shattered dreams last night.

Tossed and turned with all my might.

No safe space in sight.

MID-EAST NIGHTS

Shattered dreams last night.

Tossed and turned with all my might.

No safe space in sight.

EUROPEAN NIGHTS

Shattered dreams last night.

Tossed and turned with all my might.

No safe space in sight.

War never ends now.

We don’t know how.

We hold on tight 

to what we do know.

Afraid to let go

during uncertain night

and awaken in hopeful daylight.

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January 29, 2023 · 2:29 pm

HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE

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Empty shoes piled high and deep

their secrets we cannot keep

lest we forget

the truth of who we are

humans not so far

removed from animals

in a kingdom too low

to acknowledge the fact

that we must control

what lies within ourselves

and not one another.

We must remember we are all

sisters and brothers

created from a single mother

each cell between us a bond

instructing us not to harm

lest we forget and destroy

the best of who we are.

Weep upon the pile of shoes

of those who walked their last mile

into the ovens and gas chambers

Jews and gypsies

homosexuals and disabled

those who wore hate’s label

of yellow stars and edicts

enacted by those in brown shirts

shouting slogans and sound bites

we once more hear on our streets

across our airwaves

at rallies held by MAGA stars

and from their congressional seats.

Lest we forget,

remember the empty shoes.

They could soon be yours.

This is a time to remember

even as those who survived

leave this place and space

and leave us the task of remembering

lest we forget.

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January 29, 2023 · 2:11 pm

LAST BREATH

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Last breaths fall all around

harmonizing without sound

on video and police cameras

lost amid the din

of self-hate turned around

decency spit on the ground

angry moves erupt in fear

calling up death ever near

the surface of inner torment

burying perpetrator with victim 

in darkest night of souls 

in human form

forgetting the best of humanity

remembering the worst

self-fulfilling prophecy

of beasts unleashed

from chains of self-deceit

hanging by a thread

of remorse broken into pieces

shards of glass 

that pierce the heart

cries of “mama” on the wind

seeing our selves in mime

shamed by how such a little distance

we have climbed

since the days when we enslaved

took land and massacred 

pushing back and down

pretending a superiority

to hide our insecurity

breathless in the grip

of tortured missteps

on the road to security

forfeiting all purity of purpose

just to breathe out rage

until no one is left

to draw a breath.

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January 27, 2023 · 2:59 pm

ODE TO MATT MIDEA

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Papers piled upon the desk

straining patience under dead weight

of a year past and spent.

Mr. Midea  insisted we know

how to do taxes on our own

before we graduated and left home.

Page after page of publication 17 became

the bible of adulthood and a girl on the go.

No e-filing for me, oh no!

Download the forms and fill in the blanks.

Then wait for the refund

to be deposited in the bank.

I marvel at Mr. Midea who cared so much

that his students succeed in life,

not simply on exams.This, his Midas touch.

A teacher who charmed and challenged,

who teased and cajoled,

who demanded deeper dives

into underwritten seas of hidden history,

where ethnocentrism and racism lurked.

Mr. Midea made us work, and work, and work.

All these thoughts tax the memory

as I complete the taxes I owe my beloved country.

Mr. Midea, thank you for helping us grow

into independent adults with a thirst to know

the real America, the source of our joy and our woe.

Mr. Midea lives on in sweet memory

and our efforts to fulfill what he hoped for

teaching Principles of Democracy.

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January 26, 2023 · 7:59 am

WINTER STORM ADVISORY

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Spits of snow space out across the sky.

Flakes duck and dive in solemn drill

and melt before they hit the ground.

If this be snowfall, there is no winter

like those we used to know.

Hard to dispel the storm warnings

even with little to show, or shovel or blow.

Something there is which anticipates a storm.

A glad energy, deeply hidden and worn.

Known to those who live in the in-between

where steadiness rests on granite, not clay.

Looks like tomorrow will be just another day.

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January 22, 2023 · 2:52 pm

NEW NEWS

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I awake from sleep and must know

what happened during the night.

Sleep hid a hemisphere

still awake and out of sight.

I do not want to hear

what happened yesterday, here.

That is old news to me.

I want only new news.

Only what is new is truly news, you see.

Rehashing yesterday’s facts

is not the new news we need.

We want to know about

the facts we cannot see,

what happened while 

we were still asleep.

Half the world was still awake

and holds news we should know

to understand, to connect us to our globe.

Certainly, technology exists today

to bring such facts our way.

And, 24/7 you have the air time.

So, bring the news from other spheres.

Bring offshore news to us.

Learning more, seeing deeper 

builds inter-hemisphere trust.

We are one world. We are one people.

We sleep in shifts but must awake as one.

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January 21, 2023 · 6:29 pm

HAIKU

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TAKE A HIKE

I did not retire

only to rehire myself.

Take a hike instead.

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January 21, 2023 · 2:15 pm

THE LAST DANCE

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When does thought supersede Being?

When the heart’s speed deviates

from Rhythm’s universal beat

which sets the pace of Space

with certain duration and periodic stress.

We think we know best

and reset Rhythm  and increase stress.

Too soon upset Rhythm brings cessation

instead of renewable creation.

Wind warns us in no uncertain terms

as she increases the beat of her storms.

With greater force Wind pounds her beat

against every shore, her reverberation so strong

Wind pulls Ocean up and along

where Wind’s new beat covers the skies

with Oceans cries, drowning our own.

The rhythm of Being streams in downloaded scenes

of mountains buckling under Tempo’s fall

while Desert spreads where Tree once danced

in the stately rhythm of ages past.

Discordant sound is now all around.

Too many simply turn up the sound.

After the last dance who will there still Be

to turn the lights back on so we can see?

When does thought supersede greed?

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January 14, 2023 · 3:40 pm

BY THE GATE

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I stand by the gate and yearn.

I did not build the fence.

It serves a purpose, I suppose.

I did not build the gate.

There was no intent to close

the being standing here inside.

I stand by the gate and yearn,

by the gate which keeps you away.

It has no lock. 

You could lift the latch.

But, you simply wave and walk by.

I stand by the gate and yearn.

For what, I no longer know.

It was not always so.

There was a time 

when you would have leapt over

the fence, the gate, any enclosure.

Now, you walk by and wave.

I remember now. I yearn

for you.

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January 13, 2023 · 1:06 pm

HAIKU

NO SNOW

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The snow did not come,

seeing no need to blanket

an over-warm earth.

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