unexpected company
box fan’s whir
covers the crickets
/ / /
1 May 2024
Charlottesville VA
Category: My poems
Organizing
You find the people you can trust
and with them you push down on the lever
that moves the world until you hear
a ripping sound as the old ways
are torn up by the roots, leaving
fresh soil in which to plant the seeds
of the new world, the world where
we’re all free to be
who we were always meant to be.
/ / /
30 April 2024
Charlottesville VA
NaPoWriMo Day 30
On Discovering That Your Dear Friend’s Favorite Live-Action Spider-Man Movie Is Spider-Man 2 Starring The Woefully Inadequate Tobey Maguire
[this space intentionally left blank]
/ / /
29 April 2024
Charlottesville VA
NaPoWriMo Day 29
Muse
Let’s be honest:
These days every poem is about you.
When I write about Palestine,
your fierce conviction fires the lines.
When I write about birds,
your love of nature guides me.
When I write about the night sky,
I see the stars through your eyes.
And when I write about you,
I can never find enough words.
So I’ll kiss you under the streetlight
on a night as warm as day,
wondering at my luck
under the glow of Orion.
/ / /
28 April 2024
Charlottesville VA
NaPoWriMo Day 28
Tempest
A hurricane sweeps through Iowa;
a massive vertical tunnel,
dark as night and fierce as you.
Somewhere ahead is the world
where we love one another,
but the path there is dangerous.
Relatives text in to confirm:
We’re ok, it missed us.
Everyone is safe.
It’s not the desire that’s lacking,
it’s the certainty of the outcome.
There’s never a way to know.
Another text: There were twisters
all around us as we watched
from our balcony.
The danger of the maelstrom
is worth it, though, for the chance
at a life inside your heart.
/ / /
27 April 2024
Charlottesville VA
NaPoWriMo Day 27
fall asleep on a short couch
awaken
to the absence of drones
/ / /
26 April 2024
Charlottesville VA
NaPoWriMo Day 26
All Rise
Would everyone who served in the military please stand up? [polite applause]
Would everyone who’s had their house destroyed by the military please stand up? [silence]
Would everyone who’s lost a child to an attack by the military please stand up? [weeping]
Would everyone who couldn’t finish school because so much of our budget goes to the military please stand up? [single cough]
Would everyone who has risked their physical and emotional safety to impede the actions of the military please stand up? [murmur]
Would everyone who wishes for a world without the existence of the military please stand up?
/ / /
25 April 2024
Charlottesville VA
NaPoWriMo Day 25
starlings in my yard
the memory of you
on my lips
/ / /
24 April 2024
Charlottesville VA
NaPoWriMo Day 24
Disappointment
A three-by-three grid
with one slot unfilled,
the perfect size for a flyer.
Driving by later
to see the space still there,
the lowest bar not crossed.
/ / /
23 April 2024
Charlottesville VA
NaPoWriMo Day 23
Every
Every back turned.
Every heart stone.
Every bond broken.
Every flesh bone.
Every eye closed.
Every tongue still.
Every hand withdrawn.
Every word ill.
Every road ended.
Every smile gone.
Every door closing.
Every gate drawn.
Every thought poison.
Every grudge fed.
Every song silenced.
Every dream dead.
/ / /
22 April 2024
Charlottesville VA
NaPoWriMo Day 22
Cape Charles
I send you a video
from the edge of everything,
watching a line of cargo ships
lay siege to the horizon.
A laughing gull interrupts
the recording — he doesn’t know
it’s you I’m talking to.
Midway through, I’m startled
by the ancient queen
of a half-glimpsed realm:
an osprey atop her nest in the bay.
You prefer mountains and that’s fine,
but for me it’s horizons every time.
But I could learn to love mountains too,
as long as I get to climb with you.
/ / /
20 April 2024
Cape Charles VA
NaPoWriMo Day 20
Fuck All Y’all
Fuck billionaires and bankers
and CEOs and CFOs and
whatever the fuck a COO is.
Fuck all presidents and prime
ministers and congresspeople
and senators.
Fuck all generals and admirals
and secretaries of war
and defense contractors.
Fuck all cops and prison guards
and FBI agents and CIA agents
and all the other agents of death.
Fuck all cops again.
Fuck all landlords and agribusiness
magnates and health insurance execs
and everyone who commodifies our needs.
Fuck all cops one more time.
/ / /
19 April 2024
Charlottesville VA
NaPoWriMo Day 19
Defense
That little boy
in the shiny blue suit
couldn’t defend himself
from the much larger man,
so he built a wall inside, instead,
and sits quietly behind it,
hoping the monster
will pass.
/ / /
18 April 2024
Charlottesville VA
NaPoWriMo Day 18
Flowers
The monster toppled under its own weight,
taking many of those it had terrified with it.
As the creature decomposed, returning to soil,
crops sprang up in its place:
ripe fruits shining in the sun;
nourishing greens covering the earth.
Where once had been screams there were songs,
knitting the past to the newborn future.
This is the way of monsters and of what follows:
Fear will lose to flowers.
/ / /
17 April 2024
Charlottesville VA
NaPoWriMo Day 17
April 16, 9:30 PM
For S and H and L and H
On the radio, the Red Sox are
coming back against the Guardians.
I traveled in time today, talking to the people
of Wednesday and Thursday and Friday,
all while playing music
for the people of today.
I kissed the person I love in the morning,
hugged more people I love in the evening.
Times pass, memories fade.
The crack of the bat, the taste of chai.
/ / /
16 April 2024
Charlottesville VA
NaPoWriMo Day 16