In our taxi
we take a shortcut
through 30th St.,
which I wouldn’t walk.
Which doesn’t seem
to end but carry on
with warehouses,
indefinitely.
And with the broken
streetlight disappearing
address numbers,
all graffiti, upturned
trash or shopping carts,
shattered shadows
into hulking ones…
We were in Detroit
or Los Angeles, maybe
Baltimore.
I think it is the
longest street
I’ve ever seen.
Tag: fear
Coming
We aren’t under the
tornado warning,
at least not officially,
but I can hear the sirens
from a long way off.
Like any whistle blown
in advance of a train.
The protests sound
out loud and clear:
Pay Attention.
Put down what
you were doing.
Look,
Black lives matter.
Now, what
you do with
your one life matters.
Where will you stand,
in the old weather
circling back around?
Haunted House
Can not be scarier
than what we can imagine.
Though the dark helps.
The shapes we give to
moans. Each clank
of something we’ve chained
out of sight.
The wail of any material
left out in the wind.
Talking With the Artist
The girl who has always been afraid of water
paints it beautifully.
Others who love the water so
much they want to bring it inside
their houses, hang it on their walls
buy her work and are surprised
to hear her story.
Common Poem 