Cilantro (Culantro)

he corrected me

even though it’s in Spanish

white buds. so pretty.

‘no’ is a new word

yet so familiar to me.

so adolescent.

we’ll see where this goes.

a flat road to nowhere fast?

or the sky, endless?

Coronatine, Day Thirteen

i broke free today

with packets for every kid

(delivered by me)

and to top it off

i made me a home office

for online learning

(but it still won’t work

we all know relationships

are all that will work)

Today, a Ray of Hope

art in varied forms:

sharing her colored pencils

and spring popping up

Will You Make Me a Valentine?

a Valentine game

with two of the four children

this magic cabin

(no romance tonight.

just a son he let me have.

love is beautiful.)

Th-th-thank You

the mid-winter blues:

sometimes words stick in our teeth

unspittable pith

but i will teach them

the ‘t-h’ intricacies

of learning English

i will not give up

’cause they’ve crossed every border

to learn love’s language

La Bestia Beckons

we will never know

how sketchy the ride will be

until we arrive

Shut Your Ego

all you need to know:

we legally have this kid

(it’s not your business)

Day 24

my son shares his home

with diagonal slices

of sweet plátanos

Soak It Up

new year refinance

to close out our former life

as we take this step

New Year’s Eve

in 2019

Bruce learned to ski from up high

into a new life

in 2019

a drain drained our resources

and worsened our debt

in 2019

my girls adjusted again

to life’s challenges

in 2019

we were given the rare chance

to make a difference

in 2019

we traveled through the country

searching for ourselves

in 2020

we’ll make a better life

everywhere we go