Poetry

 

I – Book of Ruth

1. Famine devastated Israel—
despite the Peace, Order, and Good Government
the Judges had conjured up.

2. (Famine is a sanitizing sewer:
It’s as scouring as a waterfall,
but as scourging as poison gas.… Read the whole text

 

Professionals

Those two men with leaf blowers,
the harness straps over their shoulders and around their waists,
protective ear muffs on, off in their world,
they are professionals, they work in tandem,
and perform a glad dance across the … Read the whole text

 

Give it Time

If lightly discarded feathers
and a glossy, virgin-white flower
fall at my feet as I pass by
I might not cast an arched shadow
of a doubt
trapped in a corner, tied around my ankles.

Each … Read the whole text

Father

Recalling my father, who tried to stop the Industrial Revolution
by sticking his hand into a balky combine, thereby shedding
flesh and blood, lopping fingers into gnarled stubs.
Or, in his sixties, kneeling and hammering sheets of aluminum
into … Read the whole text

 
(from the ongoing collection, The Wanderer’s Pulse)

Dakar

Here all the Signares of Saint Louis
a home true, theirs all theirs, finally found.
Stomping their swagger to rhythms natural
that with silver-blue swirling sea waves, winds
dry … Read the whole text

 

Upon meeting a Girl in Baga

You are the relic of a city.
I learnt the history of your body
threading the city borders.

You say stories are what we make of living,
I found yours in the language … Read the whole text

 

Song: We Get by Giving

We get by giving
and in getting, give again

but HOW

give his hand
my clit

and still

keep it
as my own;

how love
when loving means I lose

certainty

that sleepy peace … Read the whole text

 

Polka Dots 

When we met two sparks perched above Aries
winking eyes at creation and time.
We called them Maman and Baba and tied
our name in water until we became . ماهی

Before them mother whose tongue spun … Read the whole text

 

The Power of Apology

I was swallowed by your rage
Drifting on the corrosive acids that fill your belly
I can see the ravenous rapids of your words
Ready to sink me up ahead
I try to prepare for … Read the whole text

 

Blossoms of Laughter

Can you hear it?
Be quiet.
Be still.
Open your heart and paint your mind.

Stop your panicking and ignite your frolicking.
Good,
now breathe.
Ah…
Smile within.… Read the whole text