Category Archives: Poems

In the broken place where we live, hope can be found in the cracks * If a dandelion can push herself up from the earth though a sliver of light in cement and be called a weed * —or a flower by those who see more surely, we too can bloom * in our brokennessContinue reading “See More”

Dream-singers, Story-tellers, Dancers, Loud laughers in the hands of Fate—            My People. Dish-washers, Elevator-boys, Ladies’ maids, Crap-shooters, Cooks, Waiters, Jazzers, Nurses of babies, Loaders of ships, Porters, Hairdressers, Comedians in vaudeville And band-men in circuses— Dream-singers all, Story-tellers all. Dancers— God! What dancers! Singers— God! What singers! Singers and dancers, Dancers and laughers. Laughers? Yes,Continue reading “My People”

somewhere a little girl is reading aloud in the middle of a dirt road. she smiles at the sound of her own voice escaping the spine of a book. she feeds on her hunger to know herself. she has not yet been taught to dim, she sits with the stars beneath her feet, a constellationContinue reading “the ghosts of women once girls”

I am—yet what I am none cares or knows;  My friends forsake me like a memory lost:  I am the self-consumer of my woes—  They rise and vanish in oblivious host,  Like shadows in love’s frenzied stifled throes  And yet I am, and live—like vapours tossed  Into the nothingness of scorn and noise,  Into theContinue reading “I Am!”

Out of the night that covers me,       Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be       For my unconquerable soul. * In the fell clutch of circumstance       I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance       My head is bloody, but unbowed. * Beyond this place ofContinue reading “Invictus”

Our worthy sons should never be ashamed Of who they are and who they’re meant to be. For far too long men’s gender has been blamed In wars that weaponize identity. To hell with toxic masculinity— That noxious term indelibly ingrained In minds so duped and blind they fail to see Our worthy sons shouldContinue reading “Our Worthy Sons”

When I was young, I used to Watch behind the curtains As men walked up and down the street. Wino men, old men. Young men sharp as mustard. See them. Men are always Going somewhere. They knew I was there. Fifteen Years old and starving for them. Under my window, they would pause, Their shouldersContinue reading “Men♂”

They hail you as their morning star  Because you are the way you are.  If you return the sentiment,  They’ll try to make you different;  And once they have you, safe and sound,  They want to change you all around.  Your moods and ways they put a curse on;  They’d make of you another person. Continue reading “Men”

Sirs, when you pity us, I say You waste your pity. Let it stay, Well corked and stored upon your shelves, Until you need it for yourselves. We do appreciate God’s thought In forming you, before He brought Us into life. His art was crude, But oh, so virile in its rude Large elemental strength:Continue reading “To Men”