Published poems
PANIC
My heart is racing,
I can’t stop pacing,
Pain flares inside,
Memories won’t subside,
I hear the sounds,
My head begins to pound,
I cover my ears,
Suddenly you are here,
Your arms wrap around me,
Knowing I want to flee,
I struggle against you,
Fighting the rescue,
Tears begin to flow,
Panic begins to slow,
The flooding images go,
I’m nearing the plateau,
My breath slowly returns,
Stomach no longer churns,
Your hands hold my face,
Our eyes lock in an embrace,
My fear is receding,
Your love is succeeding,
As I conquer memories of death,
And inhale my first deep breath.
Published by The Organic Poet, September 8, 2021.
THE BRIDGE
For what will bridge humankind as one,
How much suffering must be done,
We all experience the same world,
Yet too many flags are daily unfurled,
We are divided by color, by money, by war,
Nationalism, deities, and so much more,
A common enemy like disease,
Did not change anything, how could that be,
We all experienced the fear of death,
But it seemed to make us care even less,
The sickness that gripped Humanity,
Laid bare our divisions like an insanity,
We must stop the hate so we can survive,
Only kindness and love will allow us to thrive,
And when we are standing side by side,
We’ll form a bridge across our great divide.
Published by The Organic Poet, July 7, 2021
Twitter flash poetry
Eighty-Two
Tomorrow will be eighty-two,
Is it time to bid winter adieu,
If this is February,
Is winter now a memory,
The buds are blooming two months earlier,
The heat of July will make us surlier,
How do we live with the seasons blurred,
We must fight for our earth, undeterred.
Unconditional Love
You come to me in my dreams at night,
Where once again I get to hold you tight,
I remember your smell and you lick my face,
And my love for you remains a form of grace,
To see you again is a gift from above,
As you are the dog that saved me with unconditional love.
9/11
Each time I see them,
Tall and shiny in movies,
I remember,
Each time a plane flies,
Just a bit too low,
I remember,
Each time I see fear,
In my daughter’s eyes,
I remember,
And each time the sky,
Is that perfect September blue,
I remember.
ANXIETY
I pace and turn,
My stomach an endless burn,
I try to decide,
Why I’m on this whirlwind ride,
I have survived,
But I feel deprived,
I’m not at peace,
My heart rate continues to increase,
What is this anxiety,
Messing with my sobriety,
I can’t breathe or rest,
It’s a feeling I simply detest,
I reach for the bottle,
Smash it, I refuse to grovel,
I run outside,
Willing it to subside,
The rain drenches my face,
The wind a violent embrace,
I bend over, my hands on my knees,
Bare feet submerged in the driveway’s swirling seas,
I let out a desperate scream,
And fall down on my knees,
I look up at the sky,
The panic begins to subside,
Relief soaks through my clothes,
The earth’s spirit has once again made me whole.
ANYBODY
Is anybody out there,
Can someone take me to the light,
For I have lost the will to carry on and fight,
Cobwebs grow over my eyes,
As I lie in bed unable to rise,
I hear distant laughter outside,
Will the darkness ever subside,
Is anybody out there,
Please carry me to the sunrise.
REROUTING
No warning, no detour,
Just a ROAD CLOSED sign,
There was no other option,
I had to find another way,
When people or circumstances,
Unexpectedly block your path,
Don’t give up
Find an alternate route,
And stay focused on your goals.
SOME DAYS
Some days are utterly mundane,
Others are completely insane,
Some days the minutes tick by like hours,
Other boast accomplishments in just a few hours,
Sometimes you wish time could reverse,
As if you could undo an event by simply acting perverse,
While certain days feel totally out of your control,
Never let just one day take away your very soul.
In Memoriam for the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School, Ulvade, TX, May 24, 2022
LIVES UNFINISHED
In their rooms,
Laundry left on the floor,
An unfinished science project,
Library books still unread,
A favorite baseball glove,
Stuffed animals worn from love,
A diary no one knew existed,
Siblings alone in a shared room,
Pets searching,
A new dress for church, unworn,
Photos frozen in time,
The children aren’t coming home,
Lives unfinished,
Innocents murdered,
The loss incomprehensible,
And a ceaseless pain,
For those who loved them.
BLIND
The movies were made,
The books had been written,
The science was published,
The truth making them stiffen,
They chose not to see,
They chose not to listen,
Despite their world collapsing,
And their lives all elapsing.
MIGHTY
Fights to control this organ are numerous,
Some call it a womb, some call it a uterus,
She sits between the bladder and the rectum,
And is the most famous organ on the political spectrum,
But do not fear SCOTUS’s tick-tock,
As she will always be mightier than the cock.
She owns the power and will never be muffled,
Which explains the endless idiotic kerfuffle.
SCARRED
Sometimes you’re living,
Sometimes you’re thriving,
Sometimes you’re just barely surviving,
Other times there’s nothing you can’t attain,
Other times you’re living in endless pain,
The hills and valleys of life are hard,
But life’s impermanence helps the scarred.
SPRING STORMS
The ferocious storm has stopped,
Brave birds begin to emerge singing quietly at first,
The sky is now a mixture of receding grey along with patches of blue,
The wind has stopped and we can once again hear our own thoughts,
Spring is a fickle mix of a bad temper and unbridled joy.
WINTER
Will I see another winter,
Will I again feel the wind and snow,
The white of the snow reflects the sun so strong,
It makes want to break out in song,
Don’t be the last winter I ever see,
But if it is, try to remember me.
WAR
The children ask their parents why,
As bombs above light up the sky,
The deafening sounds create sheer terror,
For those in shelters, their bodies tremor,
Will humanity ever tire of endless wars,
It’s not like we haven’t seen how this ends before.
SIMPLE
The simplest things can save you,
A stranger on a train who makes you feel less alone,
A beautiful flower in an alley,
A feral cat looking to be pet,
Or a shocking sight that makes you burst out laughing,
It’s always the little things, never the big, that will save you.
YOUR SMILE
Every little thing you do,
Leads me running back to you,
You make my heart dance and sing,
These are just some of the gifts you bring,
You make the world a better place,
Simply by the smile upon your face,
Never leave me my love,
Even when we depart for up above.
SCHOOL
It felt like my first day of school,
Terrified of Covid, I entered,
I was escorted to the MS/HS library,
With a box of books I’d written for them,
Inside, kids were in groups or at computers,
All masked, all welcoming,
Despite their world crumbling around them.
JANUARY 6th
The 6th of January was always fun,
As Christmas came again for everyone,
Who celebrated the Feast of the Epiphany,
But that’s been tainted by a new anniversary,
Of a mindless insurrection spurred on by a madman,
Who cared less for his country and more for his clan,
So along with Greek letters being hijacked for disease,
Comes another Greek tradition supplanted by sleaze.
THE SNOW
What is it about the snow,
That makes you suddenly slow,
White blankets the blemishes of your life,
And you feel you can survive.
F**KED
Fall in winter,
Winter in fall,
Climate change weather,
Makes no sense at all,
Up is down,
And down is up,
And all I can say,
Is we’re completely f**ked.
OMICRON
My childhood Greek lessons
Run through my head,
As the letters are naming
Mutations of death,
Favorite letters I learned how to write,
Now used for a virus with no end in sight,
The Times declares: Omicron’s pronunciation’s unclear,
Really, I say?
Just ask me—any day of the year.
THE STORM
I walk my dog among the debris,
And things are not where they used to be,
She looks up at me, and I smile and say,
Tomorrow, love, will be a better day.
TORNADOES
The bolts of lightning light up the sky,
And there’s absolutely nowhere to hide,
The alerts of destruction fill up my phone,
The tornadoes form and begin to roam,
It’s 3:30am and the sky is white,
And it’s a deadly color for the night.
ONE
Every inch that you touch,
Leaves me burning,
Don’t stop,
Don’t let go,
Not yet,
Now–
I can barely breathe,
As I cry out your name,
The waves of ecstasy,
Riding me home,
To your heart,
Where we are one.
REMEMBER
I remember the hours making love,
It was like time suspended from up above,
I still feel the strength, lying in your arms,
Wrapped around me, safe from harm,
Eating room service in our hotel at the beach,
In the convertible with the moon, just out of reach,
The warm breeze caressing our faces,
Both our hair complete, total messes,
Does your mouth still remember the taste of me?
I remember it all and feeling totally free.
CAN’T
You say you can’t,
Over and over
You say it’s not possible,
Over and over
You say it wont work,
Over and over
You say it’s too difficult,
Over and over
You say it’s impossible,
Over and over
But no matter
How many times
You say you can’t,
What you really mean is
You don’t want to.
WITHOUT A WORD
For nearly two years,
He worked as a nurse,
Trying to save the sick,
From ending up in a hearse,
He entered his house,
Exhausted but clean,
The last thing to remove,
Was his mask that had seen,
So many die every single day,
He dropped dead on the floor,
Without a last word to say.
THE WALL
I built the wall,
Brick by brick,
It’s been up so long,
Ivy has grown,
In and around the mortar,
But you cut through the vines,
Stem by stem,
Till the wall was bare,
Like me.
LOVE PUDDING
His lips grazed my neck,
And thus began his downward trek,
He stood behind me, kissing my back,
As he pulled me in tightly against his loaded pack,
Desperate for release, I spun around for more,
It knocked him off balance and we fell to the floor,
The food prep was left as we abandoned our cooking,
Boiling over one another other, making love pudding.
DEVOTION
Our love is rare,
It cost us both,
Tremendous sacrifice,
But we took an oath,
To honor our love,
No other option,
But to love each other,
With endless devotion.
SLEEP
Your heart thumps against my foot
Tucked under your chest as you nap on the floor
You sleep so soundly beside me,
Because you know how much I love you,
Sleep in peace, my beautiful dog, sleep.
ONE MORE NIGHT
He lifted my arms,
Caging me against the wall,
He pressed his mouth against my neck,
And moved upwards to my lips,
Pushing against mouth,
He pried it open, tasting inside,
Love me, hold me, be with me,
Even for just one more night.
MOONLIGHT
The moon lit the path we walked tonight,
Nocturnal creatures scurried about,
We could hear them in the brush, staying out of sight,
As we rushed home in the dark, guided by moonlight.
FREE
I remember the hours making love,
It was like time suspended from up above,
I still feel the strength, lying in your arms,
Wrapped around me, safe from harm,
Does your mouth still remember the taste of me?
I remember it all and feeling totally free.
TO THE FLOOR
His lips grazed my neck,
Thus began his downward trek,
He stood behind me, his hair tickling my back,
As he pulled me in tightly, against his loaded pack,
Desperate for release, I spun around for more,
It knocked him off balance, and we fell to the floor . . .
PEACEFUL
Brushed and groomed,
With a new kerchief for fall,
Happy to be rescued,
Sleeping in the front hall.
LOVE
Sometimes we fall in love for external beauty,
Sometimes we fall in love for internal beauty,
Sometimes we find love that lasts forever,
Sometimes we find love for just one night,
But no matter the reason or the length,
Love will always give you strength.
HUNGRY
Upon the branch I sit and watch
The world around me has changed so much
As dusk descends, ending the day
My belly is empty from less and less prey
HER SCENT
Each night as we climb the stairs to bed,
You pause at the landing where she slept,
You search the carpet for her scent,
And agonize over where she went,
I fear your mourning has no end,
And that your heart will never mend.
EARTH’S COLORS
How lucky are we,
Who live on a planet with the
Most beautiful colors of sky,
Sunlight, flowers, and trees so high,
Imagine a planet with hues
Of only gray or black and a sky not blue,
How we’d miss her plants,
Animals and fish, and her oceans’ magnificent chants.
YOUR THIRD WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
Another year has come and gone,
And the pandemic continues raging on,
But when you look at your abiding love,
You know the angels protect from up above,
More than half your marriage has been in lockdown,
But that’s okay, as the love you share is all around.
MY GUARDIAN QUEEN
Your pain is over, my grief begins,
For my beautiful loyal guardian queen,
You saved my life so many times,
Your grace and beauty was so sublime,
What a privilege that you were mine,
Wait for me please on the other side.
CUTS
He cuts
I bleed
I cry
He seethes
I try
He doesn’t
I’m tired
He knows it
I’m broken
And he’s waiting
For me to do it.
ON YOUR WEDDING DAY
You planned your wedding day,
But a pandemic got in the way,
No one saw it coming,
And its effects became numbing,
Society began to collapse,
Our way of life had lapsed,
But as we begin to emerge,
The virus was unable to purge,
Things like the lasting love you feel,
Proven that it’s undoubtedly real,
So take a moment on this day,
And know your vows are here to stay,
For your love’s already been tested,
And the virus has been bested.
BURN
I yearn
I churn
I burn
For you,
Release me
No hold me
Then go
Please stay,
Make it stop
I’m consumed
Touch me
Again.
BEHIND HER EYES
Please get well my darling dog,
For you’re the queen that’s always strong,
You’ve saved my life a thousand times,
In every way, from ferocious to sublime,
Your beauty emanates from behind those eyes,
And we share a bond that contains no lies,
I will not let you suffer long,
So hurry and once again be strong.
WAR NOT
War not, she said to me,
For blood does not wash away easily,
Conflicts come, crimes committed,
But how then do we rid the rot of sinners?
By speaking out in a voice of truth,
Exposing lust for power is the proof.
WHO’S THERE?
I awoke with a start,
The room is so dark,
Who pulled me from slumber,
And left me to wonder?
HER VOICE
Against his mother’s breast he lay,
Her voice had soothed the day away,
His soul at peace, his breathing deep,
Her love he would forever keep.
THE LIGHT
I wake in the night,
What is that light,
It’s incredibly bright,
Peeking under the bathroom door,
I ease the door open,
And see that the moon is hoping,
I’ll stay up and party all night,
In it’s brilliant seductive light.
ENDLESSLY
My mother had a stroke, you see,
And will never be the same for me,
She hears my voice, but cannot see,
Or understand her daughter’s pleas,
To leave this Earth and be with God,
Or get well enough to recognize me,
But either way let her be in peace,
For suffering like this eternally
Seems cruel and useless, don’t you agree?
WOKE IN PEACE
I woke up at peace,
For I got to be,
With my mother again,
She wasn’t gone,
She was waiting for me,
At a bookstore in London,
We talked of this and that,
As we waited for the event to begin,
All was the same as we chatted again,
And I felt her hand in mine.
MY FAITHFUL QUEEN
Who will bring a morning toy,
Dropped at my feet with unbridled joy,
Who will love me & gaze in my eyes,
The love between us has no lies,
Your rich thick coat of caramel,
Where I bury all the unbearable,
Stay a little longer my sublime queen,
Let me ready, as this was unforeseen.
YOUR VOICE
The dreams of grief provide no rest,
Nor relieve the fist in my chest,
My insides ache with the loss of you,
Despite my relief your suffering is through,
I long to hear your voice once more,
So I replay voice mails from long ago.
MY MOTHER
My mother’s soul is finally at peace,
While I am quite unable to sleep,
She left me only five hours ago,
And my heart’s forgotten how to flow,
It feels like a fist within my chest,
Preventing me from taking a deep, full breath,
I am changed forever now,
She has taken her final bow.
LETTERS
Letters become words,
Words become sentences,
Sentences become paragraphs,
Paragraphs become pages,
Pages become chapters,
Chapters become books,
And books give us hope for a better world.
A JEWEL
The life within you begins to stir,
And soon life will become a blur,
Of sleepless nights to no avail,
This new life needing your love full-scale,
But in time your jewel will leave you free,
And you’ll long for the memories that used to be.
WORDS OF PAIN
Like a whip across my face,
Your words inflict pain, trying to debase,
But I’ve learned to survive,
And how to erase,
Your unrepentant fall from grace.
RECKLESS
As I think about tomorrow,
I reflect on your words that caused me sorrow,
The last two weeks of tumult and strife,
Were caused by your reckless tongue and bite,
You put me through hell to assuage your uncertainty,
And the resulting pain was not done inadvertently.
SEAWORTHY
The wind blows fiercely across my face,
As the boat steers through this narrow strait,
The rise and fall of the voluminous swells,
Is making me feel severely unwell,
Soon we will pass through this horrific roughness,
And I will believe I have seafaring toughness.
FALTER
Sometimes a country must fall to its knees,
And smell the earth below it,
Remember the blood spilled to build it,
Ask grace to forgive its sins,
Review the tenets forged as an idea,
Determine if they cause pain,
And if they do, change them,
As before it can rise again,
It must be heal.
MUST LOVE DOGS
The snow and ice pelted my face,
My boots leaving a trail to retrace,
No cars or people anywhere,
No snowplows coming, a total nightmare,
Two miles on these icy roads,
Slipping and sliding, curses flying,
My rescues pups eat a special food,
That both of them had all but chewed,
More was at another place,
Just had to get there without falling on my face,
The deathly white enveloped me,
As I finished my task, I looked to see,
Them waiting at the window, worried,
They barked and then they both came running.
CHEW ME UP
Never fit in
Never checked all the boxes
Too tall
Too pretty
Too smart
She must be fake
No one’s that nice
Can’t find a place
Want to belong
Cut me hard
Chew me up
I’m better alone
WALK A MILE
In my shoes, walk a mile,
What you’d find won’t make you smile,
For you’d see what I’ve been through,
And you would want a life anew,
It’s not a life that you would choose
If you walked a mile in my shoes.
CANDY MOSAIC
Candy scattered on the street,
Colors melting in the scorching heat,
Did it fall out of a child’s bag,
Or cast in anger from a mother’s nag,
Either way the pests rejoice,
For they’ve received a special choice,
Eat now before they’re stuck forever,
Or peck on the flattened sweet, whenever.
CANNOT SPEAK
She speaks to me in her own special way,
And asks me to make the pain go away,
I rub her belly for some time,
Until she’s asleep in the bed that’s mine,
I can’t bring myself to wake this hound,
For my love for her knows no bounds.
DEATH’S CONCERTO
Chorale voices pierce the silence,
The marble floors echo their defiance,
I sit on the pew smelling the incense,
As I ponder the lack of moral sense,
Why don’t we care, why don’t we see,
That those who’ve died never had to be,
The voices rise and fall in a dance,
With the votive flames that flicker askance,
The voices reach a final crescendo,
Making my heart ache from death’s concerto.
THE MURDERED
Stacks of boxes piled high,
Loaded with evidence of leads gone dry,
Inside are photos of cases gone cold,
Murders unsolved, their loved ones now old,
Once they were someone, alive and well,
The murdered that never got to say farewell.
TEA KETTLE
The tea kettle sits atop the stove,
It rattles and whistles ready to blow,
I grab the handle forgetting it’s hot,
And it slams against the iron wrought,
I curse and yell at my own stupidity,
As the kettle keeps whistling, optimistically.
LOST CHRISTMAS COOKIES
The cookies are lost, the cookies are lost,
My mom’s Christmas package is somewhere in the frost,
To the post office she goes to make her complaint,
A federal case is set up to alleviate her pain,
After digging and searching the cookies are found,
Merry Cookies to all and have fun gaining pounds.
A SILENT CHOIR OF SNOWFLAKES
I am cold,
On the side of the road,
I try to stay out of view,
But often a car will slow,
Realizing I’m homeless and alone
Except for my dog Beau,
He lies across my legs,
And he is warm,
The wind suddenly changes,
I look up at the night sky,
It is brighter and whiter,
As a silent choir of snowflakes
Begins to fall.
WET NOSES
I feel lonely,
They sense my sadness,
And wet noses are on my lap,
Their eyes gaze up at mine,
Desperate to make eye contact,
They’re making sure I’m all right,
I pet both their brows and they softly moan,
And I am no longer alone.
BROTHERS IN ARMS
Brothers in arms, we brave the hellfire,
Bombs exploding, raging gunfire,
I feel the burn rip through my chest,
I’m probably dying, but I know I’m blessed,
As through the smoke I see my team,
Risking it all to rescue me.
SUNSET ON THE SEA
And at the last,
After all the storms,
The freighter settled
As did all aboard,
Above deck, they came to see,
The last few moments,
Of the sun not seen.
THE TALLEST HEADSTONE
I lean upon the tallest headstone,
The dead lie beneath me, prone and alone.
I wonder if they feel my presence,
As I gaze upon their final residence.
I think about my life half gone,
And imagine myself under the same lawn.
THE LIGHTS OF PARIS
The lights of Paris,
Shine onto the Seine,
Making me remember when,
We fell in love on holiday,
And remain married to this day.
A COLD RAINY NIGHT
It’s a cold and rainy night,
All the cars seem to have only one headlight,
They look like monsters and creatures driving at me,
When suddenly an ambulance is honking at me,
Lights and sirens force me to the side of the road,
I narrowly miss a tree, I just want to get home,
My dogs are waiting, I can hear their moans,
When I finally pull into the garage, I take a deep breath,
And thank the angels for escaping an accidental death.
EXTINCTION
Gently out of the brush he grazes,
His reflection in the pond amazes
The sun shines down upon his skin,
Illuminating that he’s is terribly thin
Food’s become scarce on the arid land,
As the days get hotter turning the soil to sand
What will become of this beautiful creature,
As he and others disappear from nature
Humans are to blame for the despair he endures,
Mass extinction making his life insecure.
THE STARLINGS
The murmuration of a thousand pairs of wings,
Five hundred strong, swooping, squawking starlings,
They land on my lawn, performing their migration,
A gesture of defiance and climate-change repudiation.
EARTH’S DYING WORDS
My grief for Earth is quite profound,
No point in crying, I make no sound,
Except for the clicking of my computer keys,
Where I write about her demise, practically on my knees,
In the hope my words will one day find,
The young and old, no longer blind,
Inspired by my writing to overcome,
The damage to Earth, humanity has done.
THE PATH
The path meandered through the forest,
I felt lost longing for a time long past,
By the time I came to the end of the path,
I realized weep no more for what is over,
Only by accepting what is gone,
Could I choose a new path, a different one,
And leave my fears behind.
FREEDOM FALLS
When countries break,
And cannons roar,
The death that comes,
Reminds us all,
That what you think will never end,
Is gone so quickly, once freedom falls.
LOST DOG
He stood on his driveway
With a dog I did not know,
He explained the dog was lost
And had been running to and fro,
He leashed the dog
Getting him out of the street,
And unless he found the owner
I knew this dog he’d keep.
FLICKERING LIGHT
The light through the trees,
Swaying in the wind,
Flickers like a faulty switch,
Or like a candle flame,
The in and out light,
Feels both day and night,
It is just beautiful.
FRIENDSHIP
She came up behind me
And tapped me on the shoulder,
I quickly spun around
And looked into the older eyes
Of my first friend in Kindergarten,
As we embraced, time smiled,
And in an instant, I was a child again.
PLEASE DON’T GO
(COVID-19)
She’s going to die, this I know,
But I can’t prepare myself, no, no, no,
Please stay with me, please don’t go,
My heart is breaking because I love you so,
Life without you, I will not last,
I climb into her bed and hold her,
Until she’s passed.
LOSS
A friend is facing a loss today,
His father will shortly pass away,
While peace will come and suffering will end,
The grief to come may never mend.
A COMPLACENT BREEZE
I step outside to walk on the lawn,
A breeze caresses, that is way too warm,
Like a seductive mistress, it lifts my hair,
Kissing my neck, I feel so bare,
It’s way too warm for this time of year,
Its sensuality burying my awareness and fear,
I know better than to be lured into this complacent place,
As the Earth warms us in a deadly embrace.
TWO BLACK BALLERINAS
Two black ballerinas in relevé,
Their fists raised high, they had something to say,
Atop a statue made of stone,
Now defaced, they’re not alone,
Words of rage wrap the dancers,
Poised and focused, they came to answer,
Tear it down to the ground,
For their triumph is profound.
THE AMAZON RAINFOREST
Violating laws of tribal rights,
They keep on burning it day and night,
Once protected, now abandoned,
The Amazon rainforest is a lost commandment,
Lining their pockets with more and more gold,
Corporations care not for what they’ve stole.
THE FOREST WHISPERS
As I walk along the path,
The forest whispers,
Leaves rustle, branches sway,
The wind tickles my face,
I sit on a rock, close my eyes,
And just listen to what the forest has to say.