In Politics And Love

grifter lips
a plunderer's pitch
con/quest

For The Tuesday Platform at Real Toads

Heaven

Marvel at the marbled sky
with more than just your earthly eye,
for each fraction of the firmament
hints at heaven's whole intent.

For The Tuesday Platform at Real Toads

Host

Found hanging by her chastity belt
from the apple tree
in the garden,

a girl schooled in Creation,
but not in how she might create

and become a host to a ghost of cells,
or how her mother's face would harden

till she didn't recognize her,
or how her father would turn away.

When explaining the reasoning behind his bill that would require women to obtain written permission from her sexual partner before obtaining an abortion, Oklahoma State Representative Justin Humphrey described a woman's body as the "host."

For Poetry Pantry at Poets United

Ellis Island

Approaching Ellis Island

I look at Ellis Island's mad parade -

the photographs of those who came; foreign

faces, almond eyes, pale skin and dark skin,

bearded, veiled, belted, booted, swathed in sways

of colorful, exotic dresses handmade

of Irish wool or Asian silks.  Women

gloved, hatted, haggard, fearful, and fierce.  Men

uprooted, but still upright.  They came

from old worlds in search of new, better lives,

and they were strange.  Odd clothes.  Odd food.  Odd gods

and twisted tongues.  Alien and unlike

us.  But they came and became us.  A thought:

how dare we, now, push shades of brown aside,

when our first immigrants were pasty white?

For Margaret's prompt at Real Toads

Heirloom (2)

Since she was small, she's liked tomatoes
warm from the sun and straight from the vine.
Just brush the dirt and bite -
little heirloom girl.

For The Tuesday Platform at Real Toads

Known You Better

How I wish that I had known you better.
How I wish that you had known me at all.
Coupled in school by a surname letter,
we had side by side desks each fall.

I'll bet you don't even remember me
or my knack
for invisibility.

How I wish that I had known you better
and let you know me.

I had a small crush on your brother
and an even bigger crush on you.
I was the latch key kid of a single mother
always mismatched compared to your cool

natural ability
to be who everyone
wanted to be

I wish that I had known you better
and let you know me.

For Poetry Pantry at Poets United

Future History

Here, the famous ten foot wall
we owe to Trump and Pence.
Built to keep illegals out -
now it keeps the legals in!

For Marian's prompt at Real Toads

I Sing, Daughter

I sing, daughter,
of sacred spaces,
woman's places
of birth and breast
unblessed
by any preacher's prayer.

Bring, daughter,
your shivers and night.
They're flesh givers, ripe
fruit for your lips
to curve your hips
and sweeten the shine of your hair.

I'll carry, daughter,
the pits in my palm,
proverb and psalm,
to where land meets the water
and offer them, daughter,
to the East, to the Earth, to the Air.

Let us sing, daughter,
of sacred spaces,
woman's places
of birth and breast,
and rest -
blessed by a woman's care.

For Midweek Motif~Space at Poets United

Cicadas In July

Every cloud worth counting
is wisping the wrong way,
but the cicadas
are singing up a storm.
Won't be long
they rattle/buzz warn
before
the heat
breeds lightning.

For The Tuesday Platform at Real Toads