I am human before I am woman 
I was not brought into existence with the sole purpose to give life
I will not fall prey to the social cube that men have made for women 
I refuse to be merely an incubator to a rotten society

I am human before I am woman
I am the ocean on windy days because some days I can't be tamed
I am the sky on continuous hot summer days because everyday fire burns inside me
I am the full moon because every now and then I am solitude 
And that is human

I have wrapped my desires into dreams and visions
They will push like sunlight through any and every societal duty 
that has been placed upon me even before I was born. 

My body will wither like the dahlia that it is
 and when the moment comes
 I will not fear the end
 just as I have not feared men
I would have known that I lived as a human 
and will find peace and comfort in my existence on this earth 
I will look forward to what is in store 

This is my choice. 
This is my refusal. 
This is my proposal to all women and men. 
Let us live as beings.

You were always told that the answers you sought were inside you... residing in your body. But you never quite knew how to get them out. You resorted to cutting yourself open, you searched the scarlet letters that poured out but none of them spelled any words. It was like you were looking at a can of alphabet soup that had spilled it's contents onto the floor. And much like that can, after you spilled your contents, you too were empty. You cleaned up the mess but the inside was hollow and you still didn't have your answers.

There was an old person in gray,
Whose feeling were tinged with dismay;
She purchased two parrots,
And fed them with carrots,
Which pleased that old person in gray.

The desert heat can be oppressive
Pressing down
From sky to ground
Can you hear that sound?
There's a sizzling in the sand
Slithering like a sidewinder
Wandering wistfully westward
A silent snake
The day breaks
And becomes hotter still
Skyrocketing
Along with your bills ;)
To all my desert dwellers
This one's for you
I hope you beat the heat
As I hope I'm going to

Intent on shells
she's a girl
where screech the gulls.

Age she kills
makes sandhills
breaks the walls.

When the hand of his timepiece
reached the top of the hour
Sam pushed the throttle forward.

Engine 138 thundered
out of Blossburg station
like an iron dragon
breathing smoke and steam –
it's whistle shrilling the Tioga valley.

Powered by coal
his train carried coal
to the shops and homes of Elmira
where Sam would press his mother’s hand –
perhaps for the final time.

The wheels, churned iron on iron,
across Pennsylvania farmland
just as yesterday’s wheels
moved his grandfather's oxcart
to their new family spread
alongside the Williamson road.

Newer wheels carry America
to urban landscapes
attracted like electro-magnets
to streetlamps – factories –
five and dime stores –
new crops for a modern age.

Elmira’s silhouette breached the horizon
and Sam pulled the train in on time -
brakes screeching through billowy steam.

His Jenny and his sister’s Sam
had come in a horseless carriage
with Zoe, Ed and Marie -
children now grown at their sides.

They all gathered to Hannah’s bed,
now approaching her final hours.
Soft voices and fragile smiles
cradled the truth beyond telling;

Time, ever advancing
like an ever-turning wheel
holds us all in its circling sway.