National Poetry Month: Day 27

Photograph

There is a photograph that exists only
in my mind.

I am wearing yellow
and a hat

hurrying.

There are cars
and palm trees.

There is so much Florida sky
it is hard to see
anything else.

It smells of lemon
fish
and sunscreen.

I am looking right at you.

National Poetry Month: Day 26

Weather

It is not enough
to talk about the weather.

We all have
the same humid experience
chronic discussion
at the dinner table.
We are easily distracted.

Something rolls
under the couch
and we just
watch
it
go.

Burn things for balance.

Gather what we can.

National Poetry Month: Day 25

Rough Draft

Not so much cornbread
as a pile of cornmeal

not so much cornmeal
as an ear of corn

not so much an ear of corn
as seed

not so much seed
as earth

not so much earth
as air.

National Poetry Month: Day 24

Carry

Our ritual walk
later than usual
almost dusk
carrying the day
between us.

What is wounded
what is forgotten
or misremembered
heavier with every step.

Last time
the deer stopped
and watched
chewing
nostrils flared
as we moved past.

Today there are two
crashing through the brush
startled disappearing
taking the weight
with them
as we turn
and walk back
in just enough light.

National Poetry Month: Day 23

Tell

To tell this story
you will need black-eyed peas
bread and fish
and a fire by the lake.

There will be tears
some water some wine
but also milk.

There will be broken glass
more than you would think

but also a blue bowl
filled with lemons
gathering sunlight
on a table that belongs to you.

There will be parts
you want to leave out
things you do not want
to say.

Say them anyway.

Say them out loud.

When you get to the end
conjure forgiveness

lean into
the happy ending.

National Poetry Month: Day 22

Dear Alexa

I keep coming back
to that one
luminous moment

driving
all the windows down

our voices
drifting away
like balloons.

National Poetry Month: Day 21

Turn

The way lights shifts
filters in
or does not.

How today's news spread out like this
can take up the entire room.

It's all in the angle
the slant

where your eyes meet the horizon

or not.