Lend an ear to one of your own kind
and do not let yourself be caught
by the winds of lust, like Dante’s starlings
blown this way and that by every gust.
I wonder if these
sixth graders will recollect,
on summer vacation,
as they stretch their legs
on the way home
from Yellowstone or Yosemite
and the byway’s historical marker
beckons them to the
site of an Indian village—
Daily ritual: my hands search and sift through layers
of tiny earthquakes, shifted verdicts not guilty not enough
evidence not prosecutable not our jurisdiction I dig.
Native women are 2.5 times more likely to be sexually assaulted
compared to all other races.
laughing as those presidential
faces fall sometimes up
and sometimes down, all drowning
in three inches of chlorinated well water
on her window, a fog sure
to vanish even before she turned
from the window and here I am
years later living in that same
Alan was cooking sausages and onions
(His other half is Italian)
In his back yard
When a woman knocked his parked car
Into the next block,
Totaled it; he got null,200 more
Than it was worth.
prayed to Holy Nuns of the Erectile Dysfunction Committee
but still // I’ll never understand why // God made something
May the words we speak go forth as bright beads
of comfort, joy, humor, and inspiration.
We have faith that the graduates will inspire others
to explore and follow their interests.