Kharma (No Laughing Matter)

Making my way
around school hallways
I came face-to-face
with a smallish boy
"YOU SUCK!"
flew out of his mouth
and smacked me
right in the heart.
My only crime?
I wore thick glasses.
Years later...
Kharma took his legs.
Now he knows
how it hurt.

A Shared Shelter

A circle of women
Huddled in the basement
Shivering in the dampness
Of a Tornado Warning

Fat-fluffed Robin
Blown into the window well
Huddled against the windowpane
Shivering in the driving rain

All waiting out the storm

Butterfly Wings

Bright red geraniums
In the sun room
Rescued from a 27 degree
New York night
Dropped 2 red petals
On the carpet
Clutched in a 2 year-old's fist
Next morning
A pot of butterfly wings
In a small child's imagination

The Memory of Fire (AKA: The Monument Fire, Father’s Day 2011)

It dances along
The ridges of dreams
Rings the edges
Of dinner plates
Scorches throats of conversation
It hides in summer’s
Long-term memory
And pops out
In the weatherman’s
Dry, high fire warning
It is still fueled
By winds of worry
It’s devastation
Still smolders
In the ashes
Of hearts