chocolate, melting in
the boy's hand, smudging
my colors all over his face,
with a little red ribbon pasted

in place.  A bunny, hollow
inside. I split open as he bit
into my side. He peeled off
pieces of me, and they fell off

like bark shedding from
a tree. I was not filled,
like the solid bunnies, that
had firmer and rounded

tummies. I had edges poking
out. My sweet lips curled into
a pout. But my foil was fourteen carat
gold shiny. I was cute for one so tiny.

She's Red

as a painted evening
sky. Red as the algae
dyed tide. She was pink
on the day she was born. Pink

frilly dresses and ribbons
she'd worn.  But then her blood
curdled like sour milk that's left
in the refrigerator, sitting for

weeks. Her rivulet eyes
and puffy apple cheeks. Her little
hands clenched like clams
on the beach. Her curls stuck

to her nape wet from her
sweat, ******* her thumb like
a leech. But it wasn't a breast
filled with sweet cream. She didn't

digest between all the
night screams. As she grew
she saw red on her white
cotton sheets!! And she'd go to

the store to buy red for her lips
and her cheeks. Red's what she wore
the day daddy left her there sobbing
at the front door.

If Life was

a backdrop
I'd roll up the cloth to change
the screen, from raining
clouds to a forest of emerald,

green. Or if it was a movie reel,
I'd edit it, slicing the negatives
from black to teal. Leaving out
frost and ice, a palm and

pink sand paradise. Or what if
it was a painting of
a storm, electric bolts and
crashing seas. Men left as dregs

like tea leaves. I'd take it down
from the wall, and hang lavender
fields under mountains high,
on crystal lakes, a tie-dye sky.

my front lawn,
as I'm raking the autumn
leaves.  Eyes follow me
to my backyard from

the street. Eyes sit heavy
in their grey Chevy as I bag
crimson and yellow. Eyes
lit the dark like a spark from

a smoldering cigarette. Eyes
haven't a body, just a silhouette against
the rock. Eyes that stalk leave me
with the creeps. I get rattled by

darting peeps. Eyes on my body,
drink me up like a hot toddy. Black
as tea burning a hole in the ground,
round like a bowl follow me around.

she'll break out of
the bottle. She's been
pushing from within, akin
to a babe in the womb. Except

the womb is now her
room. In vintage blue glass
hours pass like the seasons,
with no rhyme or with no

reasons. Colored red, and
spread out like clouds
painted on the sky. They lie. They're
all genies out there, in navy suits

and striped ties, pleated skirts,
tweed blazers and cotton
shirts. On white walls men blurt. So,
do I. It's how I pass the time.

of night I saw the light through
my neighbor's window. Hunched over
the screen, playing solitaire. His queen
off in another room. And I on my

deck drinking ***** staring into
his womb. He clicks the mouse to
shuffle a card. Our house's so close
like we share the same yard. And we

share the same loneliness too. My king
is off inside. I saw him through
the lamplight. And today the world has
this news of the president elect. It's the red
people choose. And it's so mad that

I'm in the blue, alone in the dark
at five o'clock! Giving myself another
excuse to drink. And I'll ink this in some
literary magazine, and it'll get some
likes from those drag queens.

on my chest as a buttoned
vest. It's a stone I carry
in my purse for better or
worse. I have wings inside

my cage. But they've grown dull
as I have aged. Quiet days blend
into dark fitful nights. The only
shine is my lamp light. My pen,

my only friend. It's there in the morning
with my coffee. And doesn't speak
back to me. Where I place it is
where it stays. It lies on the table

next to the sunflowers and cable. Fits
like a glove in my hand. Everything goes
as planned. All inside the squares,
in a house with empty chairs.

like a quick rain shower on a summer's
day. Like the crimson leaves when
they catch autumn's breeze. Like
a blanket of snow as the afternoon

sun glows. Like the cornflower
sky when the stars blink their sleepy
eye. Like the emerald grass when
the ice sticks like a body cast. Like a

sweet dream into a morning cup
of coffee and cream. Like a memory
in a picture frame, and the light
from a dying flame. She fades away,

a young girl. Her long hair
short and grey. Her porcelain skin
wrinkled, hanging on a double
chin. Soon too, she will fade like the moon.

falling like monkeys
out of the trees, red, yellow
and orange. Pouring down
on me, a blanket of colored

leaves. Sticking to the sidewalk,
wet from last night's rain. Hanging
like a goblin on the window
pane. Clogging up the

gutters. Dangling like silver
tinsel on my half moon
shutters. Piling up in my backyard
like a mountain of laundry. I rake them

and I bag them. They only fall back
down. I blow them with the electric
blower. And they still come back
around. They're all over my deck and

woven in my hair. They must be
building a nest in there! Swirling
like confetti, they tease.
Leaves! Leaves! Leaves!

a binky in her mouth,
like a mint cigarette, hoping
******* on the rubber ******
will quiet her down just

a little. She's a prickly opuntia,
an irascible radical, a fanatical
sphere. You cannot soften her
blow by closing the window. She'll

rise through the floorboards
towards you as you slumber. Ride
you like a four-wheel Hummer,
leaving tracks on your back. No

escape. She'll squash you in rhinestone
stilettos like a concord grape. Turn you
into crimson wine. Drink you up with
a plastic plate of roasted swine.

to me. He listens to them
spill their problems. Falls asleep
with pills he stores in his bedroom
drawer. Flirts with the ladies

in Rome. A husband and
a father. Has two homes, one up
north and one down south.  Drones
over dinner.  He's grown thinner

with age. But easy to engage. He likes
*** loud, but his woman soft as a fleece
bathrobe. Travels the globe. He's a
cartoon character wearing baseball

caps, flapping his gums in-between
afternoon naps. I read his lines,
and he mine. And that is that. One thing
I'll say - we never fall flat.

to me? The thick cherry
gloss is brushed on her cracked
lips. Bent over the table she slips
on the dangling conversation

wearing a red pencil smile drawn
on from this morning. She takes
a heavy breath from her burning
cigarette. We look like two

silhouettes against the
paisley prints covering the walls
behind the smoke screen. I nod
as if listening, while sipping

***** and lime, and eying
my cell for the time. And my head
is on the ceiling that's peeling
like layers of an onion, dangling

like the conversation, but not breaking
off. She streaks the glass, leaving an
imprint with her mouth. I hail the waiter
for the check, so I can check out.

the mobile, the one with the
elephants riding on wheels. Box
the toy clown, that smiles even
turned upside down, the little jumper

you tied to the door and the
swing, the red yo-yo on a string. All the
Dr. Seuss books that rhyme every
line. The yellow blanket with holes,  

the size 1 shoes with leather
soles. Thomas the tank videos,
that matched the painted wooden trains
with the connected track, that now

has several cracks. Put away your sing-
song voice and patty-cake hands,
the nursing bra and stuffed lambs. You
can't keep him small. He's over six feet tall!

in a quilted cornflower blanket
and set it on fire. I'll puncture
a hole in the thick of it, till it
flattens like a tire. I'll package

it and ship it off to sunny
Mexico, taking with it all the ice
and the heavy snow. I'll rip pages
off the calendar till May,  

taking November through April
minus two days. Leaving Thanksgiving
and Christmas there to stay. Or else
I'll hibernate like a bear and sleep

the months away, rolled up like
cigarettes in the mountains of Tibet
till the frosty air makes my breath dance
pirouettes on the stratosphere.

on her apple cheeks
between her egg white peaks
and the cherry rose
she calls her nose.

Planting kisses
in her wheat spaghetti hair
scented like ocean
air.

Planting kisses
on the crook of her nape
tasting like strawberry
crepes.

Planting kisses
down her spine till
she tingles, on her toes
and on her wrinkles.

Planting kisses
on her wispy arms,
that spread like wings
and her open palms.

Planting kisses
on her bellybutton, and
fingertips. So many
places to kiss, not only lips.

the two of us
in fields of green. I haven't
seen him in years, since
that day we paraded around

the chairs. The cherry
red tomato, donning an
embroidered cap, in colors
every day, navy blue, tan or grey

that hides his bald-pate. He throws
his salted lines a title, he underlines
peppered in black. And I sit
back and read how he plants his

seeds in a wooden bowl of
dreams. I'm cut up like an onion,
in rings. He's a cool cucumber dancing
in springs of parsley, dressing it down.

following him around in his souped
up Honda, looking like Jane
Fonda. Eating plates of greasy
food from diners, from Maine

to the Carolinas. Sleeping in cheap
motels flashing bright neon signs. Driving
over state lines. Stopping in Florida
for a break he breaks out in a sweat as he eyes

the college girls in Daytona beach. The ones
wearing thong bikinis, holding peach bellini’s
in their hands. Not that they'd ever look at the old
man. The guy writing poetry in the sand. The guy

married to the same woman. They both lost
their youth. Like a pulled tooth there's a big
space where it was. But he still has his
tongue that he wags. Eating lunch out of

paper bags and drinking bottled beer
out of the cooler, sitting in beach chairs
and scratching the stubble of hairs on his face
as he faces another day that he doesn’t get laid.

babe, even if you see me
standing on the doorstep. I'm a half
step into another world. My breath's
hanging in the air and the wind

blowing through my hair is just
a visual of a woman caught on film,
the shutter of a camera lens. This scene
you capture and post diagnosed

in a still frame signing your last
name is a proxy. I'm in Greece and
in Spain, just stepped off the
plane. In a villa overlooking the sea,

sipping mimosas, eating brie, shaded
only by the palms. Just the thought
of it calms. No, I'm not here. Babe,
I'm upstairs.

and for lunch eat
fettuccini wrapping the vanilla
strands tight as bird nests in
my hands. I want to lay out in

the sun till I'm golden brown
like a loaf of bread and dip and
splash till I'm waterlogged
and lobster red. Don't call me in

for dinner. I'm listening
to Lynyrd Skynyrd. Big wheels
keep on turning. I'm burning up
the old 45's. It's here I am

alive. The leaves don't fall
off the trees. All I wear is
shorts/no sleeves, flip-
flops and a wide-brim hat,

sitting in a lounge chair with
wooden slats. Sipping frozen
drinks out of paper straws. Life is
better put on pause.

for her, from acorns on
the oak tree, pelting her deck
like a roughneck, to her saggy
pertless breast, that cannot sit

straight on her chest, to strands of
her honey hair clogging the drain
in her bathroom tub. So, the water's
moving slower than a slug as

she's lifting the plug. It's hard
getting old. She's cold all the time
as the sun falls from the sky
and blackness starts at five. Leaves

fall with her, and wither like her
aging skin. If she had back her younger
days she'd fall for the boy next store,
not ******* the kitchen floor.

in tight quarters for hours
like sheep, with scorching heat
beating down. Following
the herds walking around

the ropes like
a zombie for a five-
minute wonky ride that
shakes your inside like a

bowl of strawberry jelly. Strapped
smashed together in narrow
seats is a man with a big belly
that shakes like a bowl of

strawberry jelly. In pitch
blackness surrounded by
screams. Ten thousand dollars
for the American dream!

disjointed people. You're heads
and I'm tails. I'm a warm breeze. You’re
a gusty gale. I'm slow and you're
fast. You walk right past

me, taking the lead. Like a herd of
bison, disappearing over the
horizon.   I'm bottom and you're
top. I'm the first floor. You're

the elevator. You're moon and
and I'm sun. Your day ends. Mine’s
begun.  I'm summer and you're
winter. We splinter as a broken

tree. And fly off as the autumn
leaves.  I'm the sea and you're
the shore.  We're a paper torn in
half. You're edited and I'm the rough draft.

cold as New England
winters. Fallen like wood from
an axe in shards shaped and
sharp as tacks in my back

yard. My pieces are pine
needles spread over a patch of
yellow blanket. Cause I look like
litter to the fox and the hound

as they go. I dry to a dullish
brown and blend in with the ground
as the sun thawed the snow. Men
trod with boots and squirrels

paw with their claws, leaving me
turned up as autumn leaves. I
bottom out in the eaves. A paste of
mud and stick is me.

tonight, in the backyard. They're
falling hard from the sky, like bowling
***** squashing apple pie. They snort
and grunt from a mile, landing on top

of each other in a pig pile. Ma says
I'm mistaken. I say prepare ye, for
some bacon. I took out the frying pan
and turned on the overhead fan. Smoke

will fill this tiled kitchen. But it'll be
finger-lickin’. Men and women will
stop by for a whiff of pig fry. Morning
sun chased the wheel cheese

moon. Bellies swell like hot
air balloons. When life hands you pigs
mountains in size for lunch we will
serve ham sandwiches and fries!

like a steel needle stuck
in the track of a record on
the old Victrola. But now it's like
cherry cola without the fizz. I've

broken into pieces these words
of his. The reds and the blues I've cut
like tile and let them fall in a pile
on top of my dresser drawer. I can pave

a path to Bangor with the yellows
and the black, and trace my way
back to the day. The grey cockatiel
flying around my head repeats,

repeats. His words bled/out my eyes,
nose and ears. And has not stopped
in all these years. A mosaic
of his face warped in time and space.

his hot words like candle
wax, separating the whites from
the blacks then I could relax
into the greys. And gather sage.

If I could melt
down his rage like April
snow by the afternoon I’d see it
go. Underneath it the spring,
and tufts of feathers from the robin.

If I could melt
the past into a song
I'd weep when I sang it,
but still make me strong. I'd pierce
through the flames like the phoenix bird
and rebirth.

in. The days are paper thin
that I can crush them in
my hands like a wafer. It's like
a chafer eating the roots. I can

not flower shoots in a black
tar sky. With coating on my wings
so heavy I cannot fly. I sink
down early like the sun, as squirrels

on the run. Falling like the crimson
leaves, hung over like my roof's
eaves I grow derision in the
gutters.  June, July and August

flutters like a butterfly over hills
and cornflower sky. I retire early to
my grey sofa with a book and a mimosa
to drift off…

is strung by a grey thread
rolling off my four-post bed
at night till the light of a
screaming morn when I sew it

back on with a line from a
song. I'm a bobblehead doll nodding
to the crowds. Floating high like
a balloon, getting lost in the clouds

in a marmalade sky. My head is loose
you can spoon it up like chocolate
mousse. I lost it so many times shopping
for bargains at the five and dime. It fell

between the wooden slats, and was
scratched by a feral cat. I'm like a headless
chicken, running around. Like roux for
the gravy one can say I’ve been thickened.

again, a blend of strawberry fruit
and champagne cake. I lost it by
the lake, sitting in the sedges. It was
old with yellow edges. It floated

like a paper boat, making
illegible every line I wrote. It took
a couple hairpin turns around
the bend and past the ferns. Then

the wind whipped it
south. And it was swallowed
up by a big bass mouth. I tried
to mimic the recipe. But

it was not my specialty. I tried
searching for one just like
it. But they came out flat and ****,
even dining a la carte.

and I earth. He blinded
me with the sun and took from me
my berth. He hiccupped clouds
the size of trains, and poured on

fields of honey plains. He blew
his hot breath like a whistle making
the tall grass scrape my knees like
a bristle. He threw thunderbolts

sharp as pins encircling me
like shark fins. In the cold inky
blackness I skated on his frozen
madness. He dribbled hail of

basketballs breaking the door
of my sugar walls. And cut the moon
like cheese into wedges, driving
his hammer through my hedges.

lying in honey plains,
making chains of daisy
flowers, dancing pirouettes in  
rainbow showers. Skipping

stones in the muddy
river. Watching them bounce,
those silver slivers. Spying the
heron stalking a fish. Seeing if he

delivers the deed in one fell
swoop. Laughing as the otter
swims loop de loop. Catching a
whiff of fallen acorns. The squashed

oak fruit intense as the
day warms. Crimson branches of
leaves wave. The ****** again
gave the old tree a shave!

cannot steal a smile. Narrow
slits that fit awry I cannot pry open
to a cornflower sky, the grass
an emerald hue, a pair of doves

all snug that coo. Cold as Christmas
in the summer, beat on me like
a Timpani drummer. The color drained
like ***** bath water. But left a stain

like the chickens slaughtered. No glint,
even small as a cigarette. I've not seen the
lashes wet. Steely as an elevator door. I press
the buttons. But cannot find my floor.

like a long strand of
hair in the ****, ***** and
hidden. I was a **** in-between
the lines where the sidewalk

ends and the poison ivy
climbs. I spread out like the
plains and withstood the wind,
the sun and the rains. I grew

tall as the trees. I flowered
in a row, even as the winter covered
me in a blanket of snow. I grew
as the grey clouds rolled in

like the old man upstairs
was bowling. Others had gardens
to bloom, with white picket fences
erudite rooms.

another Ground Hog's
Day. Everything's the same,
nothing here to change. The same
sun rises in the east and sets like

dentures in the west. Another day I
brush my yellow teeth, shower and get
dressed. I buy groceries in the store,
run errands and do chores. My phone

is silent as the doorbell chimes. Headlines
print in black ink weather, politics and
crimes. Another night I toss and turn
soaked in sweat. This night is burned,

like breakfast bacon. I'm faking a smile
while the coffee's percolating.  Bills collect
and autumn leaves fall. And this after-
noon I'll wash it down with alcohol.

in an inflatable raft riding
the ocean swells. Above grey
sky and a flock of circling
gulls. Blinded by the mist

rising out of the sea
like a lemon twist
in the martini. The heaving
breast, the biting of the wind

put this elfin body in
a tight tailspin. Waves slapping
this face. Shark bait if this body
doesn’t drown. Screams cannot

be heard. There’s nobody
around. A flash of lightening
puncturing the raft. Madness sets
in. Drink it up and laugh.

is what I grow. For too long
the emerald grass has slept under
a blanket of snow. For years I've
wept under grey bearded

clouds that hung so low, like pig's
snouts. I've not fed the tulip
or daisy. I've become lazy, a melting
popsicle dripping on the stick,

a spasm, a ****. Yes, I was a tic, moving
without rhyme, bottled like thyme that
sat on the shelf. I was for me and into
myself. All that I planted didn't sprout. Head

was overgrown with weeds
I didn't prune. Floating high in the air like
a helium balloon. Shrinking in the afternoon
sun. Wearing this habit like I was a nun.

men
through closed doors
Yes or no,
it's lost its lure.

I'm not chasing
castles in the air.
My feet are on the ground
and they're staying there.

I’m not chasing
rabbits down a hole.
I've changed the objective,
made another goal.

I'm not chasing
yesterday.
It's gone.
Time to move on!

with me today. All the gold
has turned grey. Marshmallow fluff
of woven shawls has rolled down
lanes like bowling *****. The wind is

whipping me like eggs, in peaks of
white that stands on stage. My eyes are
clouds dripping sweet dew down ruddy
hills I powdered with rouge. The fog

outside is like my bathroom mirror. But I
cannot wipe it off with the cotton
washcloth. And the pelting of the rain
on my windowpane rings through

my ears like a screaming baby's
tears. One, with colic that cannot be
soothed. Like my life, a wrinkled dress
I iron out but cannot be smoothed.

or move forward. I'm growing
older, shedding like the old oak trees
in winter. I'm a piece of cinder
after the fire, a lumpy grey

coal that's tired. I've worked hard
for my fifteen minutes of fame. I've
watched and waited. But it never
came. I threw myself into it,

painting it black and red. I rose before
the sun and clung to it in bed. I fed
it every day and walked it like
a dog. I slogged away my after

noons.  I pruned and watered and
stood over it. I cannot take back
the years or divide them in halves.
If so, what do I have?

with blank faces
questions laced with
ridicule. What do you
do? The answer will

not merit a smile
or a nod. For there is
no applaud for a woman
with tongue and pen

to fill the craving of mercenary
men. The lure of a cornflower sky
and a pair of doves flying by or
a canopy of emerald leaves

dancing in a summer's breeze
doesn't cash in. Or the splash of
a raindrop fallen on my parasol or
the loud "gaaa" of the bluejay's call.

in my roof
and I'm dripping
down on the terra cotta
rouge tile floor. They

place a bucket under
me. But I let go like autumn
leaves from the old oak
tree. They patch my holes

with lies.  But it doesn't stick
like flies to paper. And the sun
just makes me vapor. The ceiling
bears the water stain. And its shape

has no border. Like this life,
in great disorder. So, they paint
over it with course brush strokes,
like covering a zit. But at night

I still drip. And now I’ve grown
mold, a black thick coat of old
age. Like leopard’s spots
don’t change.

in the attic of this head,
taking up the space between
my ears. There's no room
for song or rhyme. There's no time

for rest or sleep. I'm a sheep
without a flock. I'm a holey puppet
sock. I'm a pool of wax. I just can
not relax. I toss like ***** laundry

in the washing machine. But never
get clean. I'm a foggy mirror,
the bearer of yesterday. I cannot
wipe away these thoughts with

a damp cloth. I cannot drown them
in the lime and gin. They’re embedded
in my skin. They stick like tar and feather,
matted to the brain. If they were ***** bath

water I'd pull the plug and drain
the mess out.  But my arms are not
wings. They're chains that cannot reach  
shore. My head's anchored to the ocean floor.

a kindling wood,
not big am I. If I stood up
straight I could pass for
a blade of grass. Splintered

and thin. Lost in a forest
of oaks and pines. Men walk
over me. Covered in brown
fallen leaves from the autumn

deciduous trees. I’m hidden under
the brush. My buds could flower
to plush valentines if I drank rain
water and ate sunshine. But I snapped

in two from the hooves of heavy
men wearing leather shoes. I bent
to break. No bigger than a match
now. But I can catch fire. I’m a pyre

of the black ink night. I light
the sky into a smoky orange ocean
from the motion of rubbing my broken
pieces together.

I made weeping over my watery
grave. Looking in a pool mirror on
the ground, I didn't recognize my
face. I saw an old woman, wrinkled

and disgraced. My honey hair
was tangled as my mind. I let my future
fall far behind. When did warm summer
showers turn to pelting hail? When did

a dancing breeze turn into a raging
gale? When did the blooming lilac trees
scratch my nose making me sneeze?
When did the melodic hum of the robin’s

rupture my eardrums? When did
the horizon drop from my eyes
in plain sight? When did grey clouds
roll in dousing the sun's smiling light?

had me tripping over myself as
a child. Trying to balance this body
was like standing on a teeter-
totter. I could float on my back

like an otter. Just don't ask me
to stand. My legs were rubber
bands. As I grew my legs bent
outward. So, a train could run through

them. I was not plumb. I was
uneven. When I met him
my legs became tree trunks,
growing roots under the ground. I

could not move. He cut me down.
I was not limber. So, I built my house
from timber. From all that fallen wood
stood my home, on sunset hill.

am I. The only high-rise I enjoy
is the sun rise early in the morning.
I don't like lying tangled up in the sheets
in my bed snoring. My friends are

the jay and the robin, the chipmunk
and bunnies hopping in my back
yard. The only stars I follow are
the shining beacons painted on

a moonlit sky. I have no ties
that bind me. You can find me
under the old oak tree in a canopy
of emerald leaves, swinging in my denim

hammock, drinking coffee out of
my ceramic cup, curled up with a
book. Simple things you cannot take from
me, cool me down like a summer's breeze.

as a wedding band. It molds
like wet clay to my hand. It's not
loud as a freight train, more
like a gentle summer's

rain. I cannot hold the world
inside of it. There’re only a few
that fit. It’s not hot like the
midday sun. It's warm and

sweet like a Belgian bun. My circle
is tight. But it doesn't strangle me,
allowing me room to breathe. Even
small there's room to grow. Spreading

my wings, embracing me through
highs and lows. It's a bouquet of
colorful flowers in my garden. And no
winter has made it harden.

don't bend or drop
their petals. They’ve metal
stems from end to end.
They don't perfume the air,

like the lilac trees or
feed the hungry bees. They don't
blow in the wind or bloom
in my garden. They look like

a picture in a frame, all standing
the same height.  They don't like
water or sunlight. These types of flowers
can stay in the dark for hours. They'll

not wilt in the palm of my hand. I'll not
see them along God's green land. They’re
like a lot of women, I know. They don’t
have the power to grow.

when I fell over him. We both
packed a ton of luggage from
shorts to dresses to spouses
and stresses. But we didn’t

iron out the baggage we
carried, nor did he tell me that
he was still married! He tripped on
his words as he ate chicken aspic. After

every entrée he’d pull out his
plastic, sign the paper. And hand it over
to the waiter.  Outside temperatures
rise and so did his temper. After

the bill we went on ****** of anisette
and drunken fast ***. We threw it
all out for this, for the life we
thought we had missed.

long before the barking
winter. Before this earth
grew cold and splintered.
Hardened like frost on

the ground outside. Before
weeping icicles in the powder
coffee cup and throwing up on all
the lies. Before chain-link ties

bounded milky hands. Before
pencil legs turned rubber bands,
making it unable to stand or
walk out the door, before

this ginger head rolled
on the floor. Should have run
at “hello”. The mouth screamed
yes. But spiked heels move slow.