Love is

Love is watching from afar
letting him struggle
because he has to learn himself

Love is taking the 3 a.m.
call because his
anxiety is spinning out and

dark thoughts are creeping in
Love is always
knowing that you'll pick up

the phone and never expecting
a thank you
because it will never come

And being OK with that

--
April PAD - Poetic Asides Day 21: love or anti-love

operating system

is it just a quirk
in the system
that those who are dying

on the frontlines of injustice
across our country
are mostly black and brown?

or is it built into
the system to 
oppress those with skin tones

darker than the colonizers who
stole this land?
I'll say: it's no quirk.




--
April PAD - Poetic Asides Day 22: quirk

My nature

The forest calls
beckons me to 
stand beneath the

canopy, drink in 
the evergreen expanse 
feet planted like

roots, one with
nature because i 
am nature, i 

am the primal
predator buried in
my DNA, my

home is here 
among the redwoods 
and ferns, fresh 

air, fresh water,
fresh thoughts, fresh
mind, free, free

free, free, free



--
April PAD - Poetic Asides Day 18: message

circulation

we're all just breath
breathing each-other

--
April PAD - Poetic Asides Day 19: 6 words

Zookeepers

There is nothing exotic 
about caging tigers or people

poverty is a zoo 
and the keepers long ago

threw away the keys
allowed the wealthy to watch

the destruction of the 
poor, parentless, miners, minions, slaves

calling the infighting feral, 
innate in the incarcerated as 

a class (a species 
inhuman and different from themselves 

completely), and not due 
to their unnatural imprisonment 




--
April PAD - Poetic Asides Day 17: exotic

Chasing waterfalls

The last time I felt 
certain about something 
was when I left the city

and felt the freedom of
the open road
pulling me into lush forests

to chase waterfalls and follow
creeks that knew
far more about where they

were going than I did 
had seen more
life than I ever would


--
April PAD - Poetic Asides Day 16: the last (blank)

Carry on

He still visits me
in my dreams
loves me as if he

hadn't traversed an
ocean and
decided to leave

our baggage behind



--
April PAD - Poetic Asides Day 15: dream

Unbounded

I don't like checking boxes
(I'm an "other")
or drawing inside the lines
(let me free!)

I don't like tucked sheets
(it's too constricting)
and "don't do ___ signs"
(now I want to)

But the older I get
(please don't ask)
the more I crave ritual
(but not routine)

Turns out, I like structure
(predictability not monotony)
and prompts and poetic forms
(forced, focused creativity)

Until I don't.

--
April PAD - Poetic Asides Day 14: form/anti-form

Bottled spirits

They say he
had his demons
I saw them
on his face

anguished, angry, ashamed
they feasted on
the memories he
could not share

there could be
no exorcism for
the pains he
would not speak

only the spirits
he drank released
them temporarily until
they became our demons too

--
April PAD - Poetic Asides Day 12: spirit

World pieces

There might be dark forces
currently at play
but there is also light

--
April PAD - Poetic Asides Day 5: purpose