Alone in his dark apartment
black dog asleep
the sound of children playing
in the street outside his window-
children of color, his housekeeper says,
not quite seeing the distinction
only hearing happy voices-
an old jazz number on the radio
as he stands and dances slowly
with his cane tap, tap, tapping
to the beat and dreaming of a girl
he once read about named Helen
in a book of braille.

r ~ 6/6/14

Miles and borders
wedges

Wanderlust children
locked in the Sun's hula hoop
claim visions of sugarplum prairies

Downplayed mountains
speckle the globe
like tectonic acne
Topography's tease
The paper was so promising

Dimensions spawn
in the tatters of ambition
like fused particles of
colloquial bridges

Keyboards sprout vocal chords
and philosophies huddle under
shy amusement
humming to the hymn of a discovery
wrapped up in the chords
of enraptured choirs of fingertips