My Poetry

I don't write a lot of poetry, but I feel that with my new conviction to write, I don't want to count poetry out as it can be anything you want it to be!


Bowl of Medicine/Sprouted Memories

I was a gullible girl who believed her brothers.

If I had realized

bowls of ice-cream were in fact bowls of ice-cream

I would have had my bowl of medicine too.

Reclining in the dark green chairs watching television

was how I learned to relax.

And sixteen stairs straight up seemed endless

when I had to vacuum them.

And there didn’t seem enough when we all squeezed in to take pictures or sliding down them on old mattresses.

I always knew when it was Halloween

the weather never seemed to change

but the look inside my house dressed up for the upcoming day.

My home was a sanctuary for all the neighborhood cats

although it was only the sprawling backyard that became a home for them.

At one time we had thirty-two

My mother had a soft spot in her heart for animals. I think she was a veterinarian in a past life.

In the summertime, when the weather was unbearably hot

my cousins and I retreated under the shade of all the orchard trees.

And there was a time when spitting on the fruit was just as good as water to clean them off.

But one day, a long walk home from school, I stood there gaping, the trees no longer.

And then a forest sprouted from the soil and my brother’s heart that softened the wide expanse of an orchard no longer there.


June 2006

The Toad

A father and his daughter were driving down the road

They stopped to take a breath and found a little toad

The father and his daughter would never think of slaughter-

ing that poor, defenseless little toad.

So the father and his daughter thought it couldn’t get much hotter so they thought they ought to have a little race.

The daughter, by the water waved to a little otter and picked up another helpless little toady-face.

So they set them down on their starting marks and let those little toads fly,

“When my toad gets the better of yours, you’ll have to buy me a big ‘ole pie!”

“Not if mine jumps farther than yours.” Said the dad to his little one

“But what if my little toad jumps further than that?” Asked the daughter in all the fun.

Further, farther it’s all just a bother, while we’re trying to have some fun.

So the daughter asked her father while sitting by the water what the difference between them was.  


September 2008



Cars


Wheezing auto cars
Blinking in time to music
Rhythms on the road

October 2007


kids.


When do you feel like a kid again?
When you lick pudding off the lid of a pudding cup?
Drink from a juice box and strain to sip every last drop?
Or is it when you lie on the grass and stare at the clouds?
When you pick up a Berenstain Bears book just to look at the pictures?
When do you feel like a kid again?

January 2010


Michael's Medical Maladies

My bone fell out
I think I'm having a heart attack
Why is everyone laughing?
Hypochondria is real!

January 2012


Paper Leaves

Paper leaves on pencil trees
Thoughts bloom in the mind
From the roots that lead me to my soul

Alice painted the roses red
I painted my thoughts yellow, green and blue
Dreaming of the day when you'd say I love you

January 2012


Broken Heart

Impenetrable,
the outer shell of a heart
that has been broken

January 2012


Desert Dweller
I'm in the desert
Nothing survives here I'm told
Stupid woodpecker

March 26, 2013


Strong Enough
I am strong enough
Sadness won't get me down, no
I have life to live

April 3, 2013


Haiku for Gogey
Death is so special
Loved ones come to take you home
To live in Heaven

April 12, 2013