Throwing Shade

Photograph by Tuca Vieira

The building’s shadow sharply demarcates

the trees beyond its cast

already unburdened of last night’s snow

the trees landscaped in less

where single digits chill

(Image from the article "Inequality ... in a photograph," The Guardian (Nov. 29, 2017)

Lesser Horned Deities

 

Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters

In the pantheon of suburbia

they are gods and goddesses of fringe gleanings

Holy mothers to thin coats, visible ribs

counting down the coughs echoing through their kids

Older brother immortals fixing mac&cheese dinners

fighting off sleep until they hear the click of mom’s key

Baby sister creators crawling through barbed wire

carefully molding dolls out of landfill castaways

Father God is off-continent

wires funds in spare change

Father God is unknown

a photo in a phone

Father God is imprisoned

calls collect once a weekend

Father God is dead

imagine him in greener pastures

     Image from Ariel Min, "In world’s poorest slums, landfills and polluted rivers become a child’s playground," PBS News Hour (Feb 12, 2015)

Dread the bird flying straight at window

leading with neck

fragile to impact

too much speed in degrees

too little space to spare

when the crash comes

I want reverberations to smack

Mortifying Rejections that Could Not Shame Hope

 

The queer doe leaps to a stop near the other doe

haltingly steps closer to nuzzle her friend’s neck
proceeds to mount forelegs beside the other’s spine
who jolts away twisting a startled look around
the queer doe doubletakes in the same direction
staring as if demanding, “Where is the culprit?”
Glenn who guilted to be more Christian than I did
Sam who seemed to suit ‘til our plans didn’t align
Cole who could not talk me into conversation
No fault break-ups when one person in a passion
faces a friend who prefers remaining unchanged
in my bumbling way I kept courting chance, then
Dirk confessing that dating was insufficient
me conceding to the urge to believe him home

Diverse Chirps United

blackbirds pepper sky
starlings, red wings, grackles mix
multitudes flocking 
woven warbles, novel notes
instinctively various