Strain

I spend fallow days sewing small repairs by hand working on old huipils, second-hand jackets cotton pulled loose by relentless movement my fingers ache pinching worn woven fabric vision blurs in the impassable needle’s eye I ask forgiveness and reach … Continue reading

Silken Dreams

© 1990 Raven Heart Music (ASCAP) From Herdman, Hills, Mangsen’s Voices and Anne and Michael’s Paradise Lost and Found This here loom is fifty years old Me and Mary we’re a little older We’ve been here since 1918 Now the … Continue reading

The Iris Thief

I am an Iris thief pilfering lost fields a gleaner of abandoned, rebellious gardens that hold on and wait under collapsed, rotted boards that charcoal the already black soil   far off the highways devalued land erupts with history steeped … Continue reading

The Great Valentine’s Day Balloon Escape

So, picture this … balloons making-a-break for it while you watch from a line at the dollar store Everyone’s eyes are fixed on the scene outside where a weary, middle-aged clerk is trying to help a very impatient, irritable man … Continue reading

Lost, I humbly ask

Were the other sisters ever envious of Saint Teresa of Calcutta? They worked side-by-side with her, yet remained as nameless as the rag-colored bags-of-skin-and-bone souls they lifted, washed, spoon-fed and cradled through suffering. Did they feel equally-sainted in God’s eyes? … Continue reading

After All

the oak-leaf hydrangea knows nothing of the slaughter in Orlando only that the time for blooming chill-white flowers has come and the catbird hopping behind me, as I mow the lawn, is not weeping but looking for food in the … Continue reading

Horizon

I am debating with the reddening sky the nature of the ideal horizon. Perhaps, the still whiteness of the northern most mountains refracting the first light of a newborn day and sending it scattering dancing over icy lakes or possibly, … Continue reading