I note the obvious differences in the human family. Some of us are serious, some thrive on comedy. Some declare their lives are lived

A Rock, A River, A Tree Hosts to species long since depart… Marked the mastodon, The dinosaur, who left dried token… Of their sojourn here

Shadows on the wall Noises down the hall Life doesn’t frighten me at all Bad dogs barking loud Big ghosts in a cloud

Beloved, In what other lives or lands Have I known your lips Your Hands Your Laughter brave

I’ve got the children to tend The clothes to mend The floor to mop The food to shop Then the chicken to fry

Funky blues Keen toed shoes High water pants Saddy night dance Red soda water

Your hands easy weight, teasing the bees hived in my hair, your smile at th… slope of my cheek. On the occasion, you press

Lying, thinking Last night How to find my soul a home Where water is not thirsty And bread loaf is not stone

When you come to me, unbidden, Beckoning me To long-ago rooms, Where memories lie. Offering me, as to a child, an att…

When love is a shimmering curtain Before a door of chance That leads to a world in question Wherein the macabrous dance Of bones that rattle in silence

You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I’ll rise. Does my sassiness upset you?

A last love, proper in conclusion, should snip the wings forbidding further flight. But I, now,

There is no warning rattle at the… nor heavy feet to stomp the foyer… Safe in the dark prison, I know t… light slides over the fingered work of a toothless

You drink a bitter draught. I sip the tears your eyes fight to… A cup of lees, of henbane steeped… Your breast is hot, Your anger black and cold,