Invitations to love come in small packages.
Think of the earned cat nuzzle against the leg
first thing in the morning. Think of the gentle steam
rising off the coffee leaving the palm of the
woman who chose to rise early enough to
make you coffee in the first place. Think of
the sky overflowing with light. Think of the
morning wind bending the trees into
music notes. Think of the day like a jukebox.
Think of the small truths. Think of the
hundreds of roots that live in the soil
of the soul. Think of the thousands
of invitations arriving every day, in small
and simple ways, each with your name,
waiting to be opened.
A voice comes and goes
A thought flows then no-shows
A word stays but the idea frays
A poem is everywhere then nowhere
A cloud crosses the sky like a line in a page
A shape of sound surrounds the day
A song is a quiet kind of chaos
A moment is a door into something more
A door opens only to close
A voice comes and goes
A thought flows then no-shows
A poem is everywhere then nowhere
Across the stars and lights of the flamingo pink walls
of Taco Cabana off of 45 South and Wayside
and
under the waves of headlights surrounding us inside
this fast-food parking lot on a Saturday Night,
Adela turns to me from the passenger seat
And proclaims her life-long belief in soul mates
In the idea that two people are meant to be.
Without missing a beat,
she looks right at me and smiles a mile long
and confirms that I am indeed her soul mate.
As her husband, I feel relieved,
So relieved I could sing!
And I do,
all the way home.
For my wife, Adela, on Earth Day
On our honeymoon, no matter where we stood,
we stopped to watch the sun crawl back
into the other side of tomorrow.
The migration of light crossed all living things
like a promise for what was to come.
Our love made us a witness
to what this Earth has to offer.
We are in Marfa, Texas,
it is a Texas December
and the cold air carries
itself into our breath
and out with each word.
I watch your neck crane
like a telescope
your eyes marvel
your voice traveled
upwards to the only sky
I’ve ever seen with
enough light to turn
the dark wild desert
into a matrimony of star fire.
In Golden Colorado,
We drive up to Lookout Mountain Road
to witness the Great Conjunction
Where Jupiter and Saturn blur into one
An earthly phenomenon that won’t happen again
for another 80 years
A million miles away,
Two planets align
into a holy reminder
of what happens
when the Universe
makes a promise
and keeps it.
On the outskirts of Alamogordo, New Mexico
White Sands National Park orbits like
another planet
Walking across the sand dunes,
we stomp and stare into an
endless white sea
The mountains surround us
as does the light
A distant wind wanders
across the sand like
a spirit.
The spirit blesses us
with the different colors of the sky
I think of the ground as a canvas
untouched and boundless
When the sun dips behind a strange horizon
I set my eyes on what’s left behind
The purple-pink-blue hues
go outside the lines of time
like spilled paint. When the light
hits your face, I am blessed by
the gravity of our love,
how it tethers us here
to this world
to this Earth.
For my wife, Adela
Adela sings Spanish love songs to me
in the passenger seat
on a Saturday night.
She plays the air
with her voice,
lingering
like the shadow of the moon
and I look at her
knowing I cannot translate
the music she makes,
but when I hear her voice,
I wish to sing too.
A Minnesota jury found a man guilty of murder
That man was a cop
I won’t say his name. This poem isn’t for him.
The cop is a murderer, beyond a reasonable doubt.
The whole world watched this
cop kill an unarmed black man
George Floyd was his name.
Some people prayed the cop would see
something called Justice,
which in America, means more than one thing.
Tuesday April 20, 2021
I sat in my house, eyes glued to the TV screen
after days of putting this cop on trial.
The Judge read the verdict
Guilty, Guilty, Guilty.
Where to go from here? It’s not my place to say.
I just made a promise to myself
not to keep quiet
when history is being made.
Eyes above the treeline, I measure my breath
with each step on the concrete. When I look
down at my feet, I’m too focused on where I am,
not where I am going, where I’m supposed to be.
The air in my lungs lunge out of me like exhaust.
I trust my blood
running and flowing like
my desire to cross
the imaginary finish line of the next traffic light.
I am astonished at the way the body moves
and how each day I show up for myself,
I continue the marathon
of being alive.
For Adela
A simple Sunday. Spring cleaning and soft rain. Driving with the windows down. Cool air on the other side of every closed door. Feeding lazy cats. A sound track to stifle the silence. Your hand in mine. The promise of a hot meal. Sundown Moscow mules to fuel the buzz of young love. Your green eyes at dusk. The two of us together. My voice and yours blend into the wind. We change the world around us. At least our love does. Just a simple Sunday when anything is possible and so is nothing. So much to do. But I let go of time. Decided eternity wasn’t impossible. I just choose a moment, any moment, with you, and I refuse to let it end. Ask me for the evidence of my love and use this poem as an exhibit.
Thinking of you feels
More powerful than a dream
You are what you seem
Try not to panic when you hear the word pandemic
Or at least, try not to think of panic.
The connotation of that word
like an incantation I cannot escape.
How much time has passed since the last
time you were afraid? I watched
the whole world spend a year in fear
and fighting to stay alive.
What will I say of this time?
This morning, I drove south
through a grey sky to take
my wife to her second vaccine
appointment. Listening to NPR,
we hear a story about gospel soul singer
Elizabeth King, who started singing again
after she survived a drunk driving car accident
She sang the songs her mother sang to her
songs left behind before her long journey home
back to God. The music of her voice
harmonized with the sound of morning rain.
Looking ahead, I listen with both
hands on the steering wheel,
the gold wedding band on my finger
shines brighter than the sun.
I’m in love with right now
with nothing left to fear.
A POEM A DAY 