The thunder and lightning have returned, and you still aren’t here. It seems like every time there was a storm I stared out of the window waiting for you to come home. This is the last storm that I will think about you. There is no thunder left in me to miss you. There is…
Four Your Favorite Number
Undiscovered I: The streets are blocked Just like my mind Uncomfortable and hot I search for a cool drink And all I hear are the echoes of your voice At the card table Searching for the Marfa lights In your bedroom Nature swoons to remember you The wind across the desert The butterflies and birds…
Luminous Joy
Under a desert sky A transcendent spirit Is wrapped with care For a transfer Written in the stars Through transformative corridors. The cool air replaces the heat Transfixed on the place Scurrying life pauses. The message transmitted: A celebration is near But this transition Needs time. All transgressions dissolved Into dust While your translucent memory…
My Bravest Moment
Yesterday, I delivered the eulogy at my sweet mama’s memorial service. It was not nearly as hard as I had imagined and certainly won’t compare to the emptiness I will feel in the days to come. But for today, I can say that I am proud of myself that I tried to give my mother a proper good-bye. After…
unpublished love 5
trastevere, il primo agosto reveal to me what i left behind 19 years ago presented with choices i did my best to remain intact a battle insignificant to most gave to me courage bravery gratitude reaching into the coffers i request a large withdrawal that depletes my accounts as i beg for mercy and ask…
unpublished love 4
as St Cecilia with her Roman veneration lies in stone slumber the streets rise and fall the walls close in clawing our way through dark invitations of death warning bells chime Hurry Leave Away SPQR tattooed on everything Roman atrocities are evident if you listen carefully they will try to capture your soul to feed…
unpublished love 3
the rose petals have fallen, sunken, dropped italian frescoes crumble into piles of expensive dust where cars whizz by without a care onto ancient roads of traveled souls, where gold seeps into the aqueducts where the decadence of Rome poisons the people into believing that gratitude is not a blessing to be revered when discoveries…
unpublished love 2
that first night I slept and you couldn’t that is where the separation started the faint blue ember of the curtains showing the street lights below comforted me in a sad sort of way Rome again and I could not protect her from the grips even though she lay beside me the one I loved…
unpublished love
unpublished love comes to me like a cloudy vision that sounds like distant church bells* that wake me from sleep unpublished love is why i toss and turn because it whispers my name and then vanishes unpublished love lights the night sky with the brightest stars to remind us unpublished love waits for me at…
BAND-AIDS TO PRISON: AN AWAKENING
As a teacher I have long recognized that fair is not equal. In a terrible twist of hypocrisy, I formerly explained to my students the following example. Teacher: “If Jose cuts his finger and I give him a band-aid, and you want one too but have no visible need for one, then would it be…
arlisann 