Too many days
have gone by in worry
too many nights
in nightmares

Too many afternoons
in soppy tears
too many mornings
with short breath

There are no happy endings
only endings
only means to an end
only dying to live
beyond our means

Never enough
is a pit
you scream into it
it echoes

Never enough
is a hunger
it growls and growls
twisting your stomach

Never enough
is a sadness
of always coming up short
even when it was enough

Never enough
is a lie
that we all hear
and all listen to

Never enough
Enough
No more
Enough

Little beads on a necklace
blue, high energy, anxious

Little beads on a necklace
a rainbow of moods

Six or so beads a day
down, angry, elated

Little beads on a necklace
such are my moods

If only I could have
the good without the bad

If only I could have
the sweet without the sad

But then all the pearls
would be one color

Little beads on a necklace
are who I am

We'd be on the list,
he said

In days past,
that list for VIP-s only
was for a screening, a fashion show
A red carpet, a gallery soiree

But days before the Election
he was quietly referring
to a purge list
A VIP of a different sort

We'd be on the list,
he said,
if there was a coup,
for being artistic dissidents

The sun sets in Hollywood
and I'm in the VIP Room
which is my living room
praying, hoping for peace

I picked up a rock 
from the bed 
of a rivulet
slowly trickling, yet vibrant

It wiggled
It squirmed
in transparent
vulnerability

A larval miracle
clinging to life
pulled from the mother river
exposed to the cold air

This tiny force
is just as alive
as me
and perhaps more so

I placed the stone 
back into the trickle
of the river
hoping it lives

How much compassion 
do we have for the smallest
of the small
the beginnings

How much compassion 
do we have for the vulnerable
for what's just beginning to grow
ideas, people

How much compassion 
do we have
to put the stone back
rather than take it for ourselves

Autumn wants attention today
as she tosses leaves
into cool, crisp air

Autumn wants attention today
as my flip flops are thrown
off my porch
into a pile of crunchy leaves

There is a chill 
It makes me awake, more prescient

There is a chill
Have I prepared?

Autumn wants attention today
as she tosses what's no longer needed aside

A tall, proud 
sunflower
reigns as an empress 
over 
a trickle of a
river

She stands, thirsty
daring 
to live in
barrenness

She is not 
proud
because she is 
exceptional

She is proud
because
she was determined,
audacious

She overcame concrete,
thirst
relying on sunlit 
days 

She overcame man's
concrete
rules for her
blooming

She is blooming
defiantly
regally, in season

She is a 
tall
proud sunflower