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?
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?
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)
art in varied forms:
sharing her colored pencils
and spring popping up


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.)
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
we will never know
how sketchy the ride will be
until we arrive

all you need to know:
we legally have this kid
(it’s not your business)

my son shares his home
with diagonal slices
of sweet plátanos

new year refinance
to close out our former life
as we take this step

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
