My Almost Garden

This is the garden I thought I’d grow

In my mom’s backyard and have my own tomatoes.

I would tend it and it would blossom for me

Like an obedient child with a gift for mommy.

It would be surprisingly bountiful

And people would exclaim over my efforts

And of course, my spectacular tomatoes.

This is the garden I thought I’d grow

In my mom’s backyard and have my own tomatoes.

This plot of gnarled roots and soiled ceramic pots.

With no tomatoes, gifts or exclamations

This is my sacred place

And there are no hungry, tomato craving visitors

To spoil the fruit of dusty comfort among the vines.

As Long as Time Was Time

As I navigated the fury of a cold March rain
I was face to face with the dreary reality
Of quiet truths and loud secrets.
Like a discarded lunch bag, I crumpled
Underneath the demands of the world, drooping
Beneath the nuisance of indiscovery.
I was lost and sure I’d stay that way
As long as time was time. I felt destiny crept along
In secret droves of itself.
An army of inescapable rights and wrongs:
Infantries compiled of tears and fears
Grey walls, freezing rain, and me
Each drop full of admonition
Coloring my every misstep,
the glare of imperfections: mine
So expertly amplified
And washed onto the shoes of the world.

Dazzled

Devastating my senses
Keep leaving me breathless
Gettin dizzy when I’m next
to you
Passions mingle tightly
...With a tango practiced nightly
Erupting in shades of blue
Or. Perhaps... it is red
That shrouds us instead
As one emerges
from two

Why She Weeps

Just this one time
Only this once, she'll say
Course, she don't know
They all start out that way
Driven to desperate measures
by a painfully throbbing hunger
She jumps in with both feet
And the current sucks her under
To a place where innocence drowns
She'll never see herself again
Cause even if she makes it out
She's not herself by the end
Baby Girl is a trembling stranger
Lost in a sea of fools
Corrupted by cowardice and anger
She's done things to herself
That have made her soul sick
Another day, another John
Another sad faced trick
Pushed into and pushed around
She wills the churning to cease
She's hiding from her past
And lying to the police
She's exhausted.
Shaking and crying
Bile rising even as her tears
Are drying
Too tired to even attempt
To allow herself to sleep
Damn, these rivers run
So deep
It ain't hard out here for a pimp
But it's a war for a lost girl
Washed up on the shores of urban battle
And forgotten by the world.

Silky Records

My background music
is a
soft silky jazz
The fingers of my spirit
dance along
ivory keys
Immersing my
everything
in the
liquid song
And
Smooth saxophone
type lovin is
Flowing from my
every pore
So that even the
frizzy ends
of my hair
wanna get up
and sway a little
Faint notes of ragtime
Are so powerful
I'm humbled
Now I'm dancin
on my knees
Cause I swear
I couldn't stop
if I wanted
Somewhere
Somehow, I became
the melody
And now dancin's
how
I
breathe...
Remove the melody
Still the dance
And you'll force
the end
of me