an exhausting day
with my spirit-week “jersey”
and this fake smile
hidden by these masks
that have broken our world
like a rootless orchid
but this cat. this cat.
a soft purrfection presence
worth a real grin.
Reach for It
relationships
Steamboat: Gains and Losses
i'll write a haiku
as easy as this damn day
filled with lines. and love.
you will never know
how hard i've tried to earn this.
you can taste the snow.
you can taste blue sky.
it comes in moments, this love.
moments found on slopes.
(Re)solution
ironic notice
as the words come flooding in
(yet i can’t stop them)
no. i had no plan.
no plan for any of this.
(nor a solution).
Christmas Cookies
he’s no idea
what he’s got himself into
with these crazy girls
cookies are cookies.
we will cut, bake, decorate.
’cause it’s what we do.
arms, metal, ginger:
what is a holiday scent?
molasses. that’s it.
and soft-spun sugar
ready to perfect Christmas
with gingerbread sweets.
Quarantine Scenario #437
hidden behind mask
is my sixteen-year-old girl
(her pandemic grin)
i hope to win her
with walks, drives, conversations
just like the old days
August Coronatine Accomplishments
oldest in college
(concurrent enrollment win)
(can remove spiders)
youngest wants hair cut
just in time for her birthday
my new career–ha!)
Anniversary Climb
this mountain’s too steep
but i know he won’t turn back
he’d never turn back
twenty-two years in
we’ve climbed many a mountain
and have won each view
Still the One (Twenty-two Years)
you can’t get this far
without climbing some mountains
oh, but the aspens.
Road Trip 2020 (Swim Me a Snake)
the river’s icy
the current is too strong, son
but no one stops us
i can never look
without wanting to dive in
to fully swim. live.
they get this from me.
these kids who are not my kids.
these kids who are mine.
we swim for ice cream.
for these fleeting memories.
for their childhoods.
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?
Step Write Up 