Everything is So Beautiful

that I think about crying.
what really calls my tears
is the public library.

the dystopian security guard
adamantly scrubbed me
mentally as my lace mask
sometimes passes the test

not today.  Pulling up the
cotton mask it was only
a moment before panic
set in and I had to
pull it away slightly for

air intake.

that's not what got me
though.  The foyer of the 
library, devoid of humans.
the empty children's 
section.

​caught my breath.


Having Time


I put my reality with you.
came as I am.
cleaned my house
relaxed into it.

no alcohol to blur
my ability to live.

came as I am
with birds in the 
backyard and daddy
dying in the navy blue
bedroom.

Learned new levels
of gratitude.


If My

If my mom was dinner
my dad was breakfast

If my father was summer
my mother was cold

If my father was acetaminophen
my mother was morphine

If my mother was Beethoven
my father was Herb Alpert

If my mother was dementia
my father was alcoholic

If my father was hallucination
my mother was numb