In ***** socks
& with rusty hearts
we’d swing off docks
Throwing mindless darts

Cooked deep tan
Freckled cheekbone
A sizzling dripping pan
We didn’t answer the phone

Swinging into a wide lake
On a salty afternoon
Restless but wide awake
In a humid summer’s June

Downing a bottle of wine
We stole from your brother
Watching the sun lick the horizon line
The night dropping in to smother

Can we go back to the days?
When we weren’t caught in this maze
But instead in the suns rays
We lived in a lovely blue haze

I’m the moon
Orbiting around your pull
I’m the humid june
Wrapped around you like wool

I’m the palm
Of God’s trembling hands
I’m a ticking bomb
The Saharan sands

I’m the forever
I said I never could be
I’m your latest endeavor
As alive as the Dead Sea

"Count to ten"
one, two, three, four
Someone closes a door
I'm surrounded by masked men

A gleaming silver knife
I hear my angel weeping
A mechanical cruel beeping
A sick, metallic life

Everything is so white
Am I dying?
&, if not, why is she crying?
She swallows, "Don't follow the light"

My mother is a shell
Fragile- it's not hard to tell
That her voice trembles in fear
When he yells for her to grab a beer

My own daughter
Thinks I'm fragile- weak
I'm not brave enough to tell her
His hands are too heavy to speak

On calle ocho
A cuban man with guitar
Saw us stumble out of a bar
& beckoned us to dance
...but we never stopped

Laughing, you were always laughing
We spun around and around
& I knew we were bound
to fall out of orbit
...but we spun on

Spanish sweet nothings
Murmured in my hair
A sweet lullaby- a prayer
I held on to each syllable
...but I never *understood

9/11, 8:46 am
The first plane crashes
an explosion of black ashes
Smoke blooms- a flower
from floors 93-99, North Tower

9/11, 9:03 am
The second plane hit
Hell split
Fire licks the sky
men & woman try to fly

9/11, 5:00 pm
A flag is raised
above the rubble's blaze
Buildings may fall,
but the flag stands tall.

When I closed my eyes
I’d see a world I despise
But when you opened me
I saw every beauty, every sea

I was blind before you
Dead before I held you
But you cut through
& finally now I see you

I see you-my little one
I should’ve said it was okay
That you were still my son
No mater if straight or gay

…but
I opened too late
You’d already chosen a fate
To hang on a wall plate
& close your eyes in hate