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

Her arms semaphore fat triangles, Pudgy hands bunched on layered hip… Where bones idle under years of fa… And lima beans. Her jowls shiver in accusation

A free bird leaps on the back of the wind and floats downstream till the current ends and dips his wing

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

Soft grey ghosts crawl up my sleev… to peer into my eyes while I within deny their threats and answer them with lies. Mushlike memories perform

Curtains forcing their will against the wind, children sleep, exchanging dreams with seraphim. The city

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?

Tears The crystal rags Viscous tatters Of a worn-through soul Moans

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

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,

She came home running back to the mothering blackness deep in the smothering blackness white tears icicle gold plains of… She came home running

Your skin like dawn Mine like musk One paints the beginning of a certain end. The other, the end of a

Pretty women wonder where my secre… I’m not cute or built to suit a fa… But when I start to tell them, They think I’m telling lies. I say,

We wear the mask that grins and li… It shades our cheeks and hides our… This debt we pay to human guile With torn and bleeding hearts… We smile and mouth the myriad subt…