no pants nor memory

I was running down the hall with no underwear
someone stole all my money while I was away
on the lawn learning backbends
from an androgynous man in combat boots
he taught me all wrong

I returned to find my identity gone
and everyone I had known was fading
every marking half erased—the writing illegible
the house goes on without me as I press hand prints
into a sinking wet carpet
under overgrown grass

My teenage suitcase awaits departure
first I grip the handle
then releasing each finger
it falls as I count to eight

The only thing that’s failed me
is my memory
and I can forgive myself for that

Salute to burning

When sirens part the gasoline trees
Salute to burning

Be selfish with your breath & thirst
For pigeon-like companionship

Observing silent the secret
weapons holstered by our nametag-disease.
Hello motherhood & detention.
How are you crystal man & married eyes?

Your igloo box and plastic spork bags will be lonely someday
no volunteer to rescue you. No regret is patterned
fabric and other keys defy our skeletal ways.

It’s the symmetry of this monetary scale and street Dobroe utro Otkuda tys that light and utter the gum mosaic pink and green unbreakable dead cattle feet and sequin eyelashes all elements of a proper burial

Where contentment in placid stone and sand bottom ebbed by storm and soot.
Ripple asymmetrical
catch and release the exoskeletal film
on a lake the patina of our charge and circuitry
we concur our desire to fly finally, but shun the sacrifice
of wind and tail obsessing a skin we can’t quilt together
our stitch is magnetic
unlink and recollect what we spread on our photograph rooms
what we store in our castle buckets and light tables
when we all inhibit
shadows

Who can be as mangled on a parkbench or a building ledge—
constructions of sandstone stacked in time
compress the stillness of pre-elementary sight.

Why we fight and chew our words
Expel & askew
Fall apart ceiling and open the floor
we should make a brick house while fastening the cellar doors the shingles the slats the foliage of owls feathering the A-frame
no wing and no chimney can balance this view

What I conclude about your edges is nothing new
only I coax old by living it through
no need for the surface gifts reflected off prescriptive lenses
return all that is given to a thirsty pigeon.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Looking at what I loathe
Sometimes allows me to admire
The painful cracks in wood, concrete and clay
windowsills

I see that truth is what I holograph
A bead in the kaleidoscope imprinting on skull

.Tailless
Focus

Spindly
Fibrous

Rooted
Emoted

Bone—
the only physicality left
Styrofoam or PVC piping

Earthen artillery
Armature of jewelry

Behind the glass and the caulking
Is a hollow admiring
A steady gaze
.

something pedantic

you left loose change and melting wax in glass casing circling a warmth that stains this room full of air

nothing apologetic
growing up

someone articulates pedantic by naming something pedantic

a good lesson is right now
learning what it is through different fingers and animal tusks

none of my clothing shall have pockets in the future and my organs shall have not consciousness

coins on the floor and a banana breathes through it’s soft skin
over-sweetened age shifts the room you left loose

consciousness waxes nothing full of air
fingers articulate animal clothing

naming pocket change
coining the future

now growing apologetic for nothing

Jai Jagadambe Hey Ma Durga

(19-MA) Jai Jagadambe
Hey Ma Durga Hey Ma Durga Hey Ma Durga Hey Ma Durga Hey Ma Durga
2x
Jai Jagadambe Hey Ma Durga
Jai Jagadambe Hey Ma Durga
Ma Kali Durge Namo Namah
Ma Kali Durge Namo Namah
Jai Jagadambe Ma Durga Jai Jagadambe Ma Durga
Hey Ma Durga Hey Ma Durga Hey Ma Durga Hey Ma Durga
(Jai Jai)Om Narayani Om Narayani Om Narayani Om Narayani (Jai Jai)

Umbrellas make me think of opinions

where rain is benign and flames flood the earth
where breath is young
and death is a gentle smile
where in sunset
a camera and Italy
might change one’s vocation

She stands in front of her mirror and closet
and sees proof of everything
(creation as inseparable from separation)
she is a crematory artist
her echoes pang like BBs fired in an empty swimming pool
they pring my ears as I tune in enduring a delay
on cue a can kinks to the concrete

My little big brother and I
at the bottom not drowning compacting all the cans we can to collect cents
craft an edifice of conglomerate brick
it’s bigger than a barn now
we’ll need to build a hangar for these inanimate metals
in the meantime we must measure the molecular weight
meter the mass in minutes
until the black one we call mother
burdened by the heft of the slain
appoints our time

We used to bury eggs in the mud and found worms to grow
just as she emanates from ash in the brow of the mountain
where all names originate and breath is young
She dropped a pregnant salmon once
lifted a garland of yolk and fry
she scooped them up and set them in a tank
where even the skeletons swam again

We adopt ourselves as children to reconcile with age
built of skull and stone
she does not give what we expect except the few strands of cloth
once scorched upon her skin
each pore becomes a blossom that burrows back to seed

kid's poetry workshop

operating is scary. especially
people who do it.
quiet happens when they w-
rong a mistake.
so on the tear comes down
twenty million people die the same day
u.s. people cry
violence happens
which is why they are people in hospitals
x-rays are used the most
yesterday a person died
zero temperatures fly.

(Junior)

*****

It's inside your
body. It beats
fast! It makes
me happy. It
is in my
eyes when
I see a boy
I love so much.

(Mercedes)

*****

What if?

What if the sky was green
and the grass was blue.
What if I wear you and
you wear me. If
water were fire, if
we wear all each
other what would
happen?

?

(Juan)

*****

Colors

I like colors
How about you
Colors here
Colors there
I see colors Everywhere
Colors up high
Colors real low
I even see colors
When it snows
Colors are everywhere
I just want you to
Know

(Kiwona)

*****

Talented
Intelligent
Truthful
Angle

(Anonymous)

*****

Allen is a humpty dumpty
Burping is rude
Cans are made for people
Dinosaurs are dead
Elephants stink
Fast facts in science
Google is a website
Howling is what wolves do
Invisible people
Johnny is a good football player
Kidding, it's a joke
Low is a song from Flo-Rida
Man, you are wierd
Nathaniel is cool.

(Nathaniel)

*****

Babies cry a lot
elephants are huge
Babies poop a lot
O owl hoot

*****

Opinions are different than facts, so we
Put them in different paragraphs or
Questions--maybe sentences.
Right or wrong, so I think it doesn't matter.
Sometimes I care sometimes I
Think it's crazy but I just go with it to make myself happy.

Umbrellas make me think of opinions.
Violence makes me think of facts because I don't like to play because they're boring.
Worst of all I sometimes think the wrong thing.
Xylophones make me think of facts because a fact about xylophone is brown.
Yellow also makes me think of fact because you can see yellow, but that is always going to be yellow.
Zebras make me think of facts and opinions because they have black stripes and I think they are cute.

(Tiffany O)

*****
My school's sun is
so super. It's a safe
solar system. It also has
a star. It's a little bit
scary. I speak in a snap
voice about snacks to them.

I never ever saw blue did you?
But I have seen green.
I'll never forget when I met green.
I saw it on my floor and my door.
Then someone said, " I don't care
I just want to know where." I said,
"Oh, but I will say no."

(Patrice)

*****
I hop at home
My heart is happy.
I said hello to my girlfriend
I have a new hat.
I like to hide.

*****
Ants are strong
Giraffes are long
Bugs are big and small
Dogs are cute and small
Cats have different colored fur
Kittens are very playful
Elephants are smart
Frogs are slimy and green
Hamsters are cute and fluffy
Iguanas have scaly skin
Jaguars are very fast
Lions are furious and large
Mokeys are ugly and stupid
And scratch their butts all of the time.

(Evalissia)
*****

Apples are good
Hearts are colored pink
Butterflies are colorful
Cats are hairy
Donuts are round
Jeffrey like donut
Elephants are fat
Mice are mini
Fruits have rainbow color
Ghost are invisible
Igloo are cold and cool
Nests are for birds
Kites have design
Lions are large

(Johnny)

*****