she met my baby
before taking her last breath
her diamonds shine on
my mother saved them
for her April-birthstone girl
twenty years past pic
Diamonds in the Rough
poetry
From Great Aunt Frances
my forty-fifth turn
a lily diamond sparkle
saved for twenty years
April Snowshowers Bring Lost Flowers
April in Denver:
sometimes it can be as cold
as a teenager
Kintsugi
paint our broken souls
with layers of gold filling
maybe then we win
Scene Five from a Marriage
scene five from a marriage:
a broken spring equals a broken toaster
but not just any toaster
my bake-everything toaster
my savior to a shitty oven
my air fryer
my baker of brownies and pies
my upper-class kitchen in my middle-class house
i asked if he *thought*
it could be opened up and fixed
and before i’d moved the laundry
from the washer to the dryer,
he had the drill out.
you’ll never find this
i want to tell the world
my daughters
my soul at age nineteen when he walked
so uncertainly
into Pete’s Kitchen
but i did.
i found the man who’d drill a toaster
on a hellish Thursday
a Thursday dripping with tears and self-doubt
just another scene
from a marriage that works.
Full Ride All the Way from Afghanistan
sometimes we need hope
when the world feels hopeless
this student brings it
Small Hopes
senior pics are up
announcements are in the mail
let’s hope for the best
Grin-Worthy
the orchid is done
it bursts at thirty-two blooms
yet the blooms don’t die
Weekend Winners
irrigation system
the first time building a fence
and Sunday is won
Scene Four from a Marriage (Fences)
it's not romantic
and yet it's so romantic
i garden. he builds
Step Write Up 