Briefly

Taking Care of Mama

8.22.12

You buy the plane ticket

To come see me

You comb my hair,

Rub my neck

You position my dinner

Just so

You pack the oxygen

In the car,

All the while, telling me

Not to worry

God’s got all this and more

Under his control.

I know, I know

I was the nurse for

Forty-two years, remember?

Radiation doesn’t hurt

It only kills.

Politics

8.22.12

The crash of the waterfall

Nosediving off the cliff

The grit of warm sand

Crusted between toes

The coolness of a feather

Pillow, flipped over,

After midnight

The spotlight of heaven,

Moon staring down at me

As I’m thinking of you

Wondering why it is

The spaces that divide

Consume us

Wildfires sweeping

Across the country

Destroying all that is good

between us.