Beginning, Middle, End

let me tell a story.
it will begin with 25 hours
of uploading documents,
calling colleges,
begging for recommendation letters,
watching my perfect English writing
get butchered into
fucked-up Spanish by Google Translate,
sealing it all up a month in advance,
and moving on with my life
(mostly indifferent)

it could begin with
my 19-year-old dream,
thousands upon thousands of dollars
poured into a degree
i always hoped to utilize
upon its fulfillment

in the middle:
i’ve lost count of crying sessions–
my tears are too deeply rooted on my face
for anyone to really see them (me).
maybe i could find them in the house
i’ve spent a month packing
into one tiny room,
or in the resignation paper
where i signed my life away,
or in the credit card statement
i will never be able to pay back

in the end:
i could be here,
homeless, jobless,
relentless in my pursuit
of everything i thought i wanted,
when all it took
was putting it all on the line
to realize that line
should never be crossed

Free

it’s not pizza
it’s Beau Jo’s
and we pile on honey
drive across grid-lined neighborhoods
and pray our van won’t die
between Denver and the suburbs

the kids are free tonight
we are free tonight
though strapped down by
a mortgage
two semi-functioning vehicles
endless governmental fees
and a dream that breaks my heart
every time the sun rises

Pandora nor my Mac
will play my music loud enough
i still love them anyway
and though we go to Spain
though we put our lives on the line
to go to Spain
i will love you anyway

Goodbye

they play our music
piano bar tunes to last
longer than this will

Circular

a bee stung me today
right above my ear on mile 148
my seven-year-old might
start third grade in Spain

my former colleagues
discussed my job opening
the devils of divorce
and the two-faced
behavior of administrators

this is a list poem
i had two beers
and watched my Spaniards
pack up twenty bags
for the journey i will
soon take my family on

this is the beginning of the end
and the end of the beginning
how circular life can be
when in words we cannot express
all the emotions that draw
the endless lines together

Golden Twilight

i pedal into the sunset,
his dinner in my belly,
blue mountains backed by
a golden western sky

gold shines upon the path,
the endless evening walkers,
melts into cotton candy clouds
turning twilight into night

the circular connection of trails
brings me in and out of cities,
a world all my own, filled with
cottonwoods, creeks, canals

i imagine the townhome
hidden somewhere along the way
where we will retire, bring
our grandchildren home to

i could pick it out along the trail–
a tiny yard, garage, swimming pool,
shaded by the trees along the creek,
protected from city splendor

it would be as perfect as these moments
along the path, my pedals spinning
behind blue mountains, the golden twilight
that we will one day call our own

Soft Petals

just like the cactus flower
so rare and beautiful
that pops up yellow and pink
in the early part of summer

you dart in and out of seasons
shyly sneaking soft petals
up into the sunlit sky
amongst a world of thorns

No One Notices

she is five
she is my baby
we stand in hot sun
beneath a bittersweet ending

i help her hold up her hand
and when she isn’t included
no one notices
and i feel smaller than her

when he comes up and asks
if i’m some other girl’s mother
so he can invite her (not mine)
to a birthday party?

all i can do
all i can do
is be grateful for my new
dark sunglasses to hide my tears

and the worries that rest
deep in a mother’s heart?
this is the bittersweet beginning
of a lifetime more

Simplicity

five simple life rules:
work, play, eat, drink, enjoy all
don’t make it complex

My Day

twenty mile morn
miracle van renaissance
baby’s cap and gown

Cottonwood Colorado

trees don’t grow on beaches
and they shouldn’t be here
eighty years old
stacked up along the sand
a domineering presence
of the shade i crave

it is June now
and cotton floats in the air
in and out of our hair
our mouths, our pieces of food
a dreamy landscape
of seeds starting anew

i sit for hours
as lyrics drown out
the blue-collar Bud-drinking
daytime neighbors
i could sit all day
my cottonwood Colorado
a dreamy landscape
of all i will leave behind

soon we will breathe
the salty seascape
there will be no trees
only a faulty umbrella
unable to withstand wind
no cotton bleeding with life
no comparison to this life

and will my girls
sassy as ever in their new bikinis
remember what it was like
in the cottonwood Colorado
of their youth?
or immerse in a
languagefoodculture
that blends together
in a different dreamy landscape?