Speed demons

The woman who drove saw
only hazy blurs.
Shapes, not faces.
Cars, not people.

The woman who ran saw
what she wanted.
Signs, not stores.
Next, not now.

The woman who walked saw
everything she passed.
Smiles, not bodies.
Gatherings, not crowds.

The woman who sat saw
all there was.
Service, not shops.
Love, not people.

--
April PAD - Poetic Asides Day 10: the blank who blank

Black holes

I saw this hauntingly beautiful piece at the Portland Art Museum today and was absolutely struck by it; the hair, the ears, the neck, the shoulders look just like my son ... and the anguish just moved me nearly to tears. It's like someone took a psychic x-ray or the human I love most in the world and this is what they saw. Heartbreaking.

So, of course, I wrote about it ...


sometimes
I see death
when I look
into my son's face

there's
an anguish that
could kill him
clawing just below the

surface
of his skin
a zombie eating
his brain from inside

sometimes
i see the
look of anguish
as he claws at

life
begging to be
freed from the
killer inside, the black

hole
in his throat
that's so big
it chokes out life

---
April PAD Day 6 - ekphrastic

In my experience

the number of years alive
isn't always the
best indicator of life lived


---
April PAD Day 5 - experience or inexperience

Forget me not

Some would say it was
yours to give.

You probably would have said
the same thing.

But I would give anything
to forget you,

to un-remember your life slipping
through my hands

in a place so damn
far from home.



--

April PAD Day 16 - elegy

In the beginning

I was god
basking in your nakedness

molding the man
I wanted you to be

as I breathed life
into a dying love


--

PAD Day 1 - beginning or ending