Sweet sleep

We lie
facing apart
toes touching

the warmth
of your
big spoon

clinging to
my skin
like our

tangled bedsheets


--

April PAD - Poetic Asides Day 7: senses

Go to your room

I used to wish my
father would die
now I realize that living
is punishment enough

--

April PAD - Poetic Asides Day 8: family

He persisted

It was another good date
We went back to his place
I pulled him close

we kissed
we groped
we fumbled

It was a good time
Until things went too far
I pushed him away

he groped
he fumbled
he persisted

It was no longer a good date
Back at his place
He pulled my legs apart

I fumbled
I flailed
I cried

he persisted

--

April PAD Poetic Asides Day 3 - stop / don't stop

IQ test

"Oh, you're a smart girl,"
he said, as
if I was somehow less

attractive because of my intelligence.
"I guess so,"
I said and walked away.

--

April PAD Day 5 - Poetic Asides prompt: intelligence

Blooming

we bloom in secret, stretching
our faces closer
to the sun each day

--

April PAD Poetic Asides Day 1 - secret

Casing the joint

I sneak
I watch
from the outside
from afar

I look through pictures
I look through junk
to catch a glimpse
to understand

the woman in the mirror

--

April PAD Poetic Asides Day 4 - case (blank)

Aphrodite

Her soft belly

and sagging breasts

adorn museum walls

we scurry

past embarrassed by

her audacity to

be fat and

adored, a diety

whose gifts we

scorn because we

have forgotten how

to love our

own bodies, preferring 

to chisel away 

our curves for 

the hard angles 

that look better

on Instagram

—
April PAD Poetic Asides Day 2 - portrait

Grounded

the crows outside my window
know I feed
my dog at 8 a.m.

every morning they show up
to nibble the
leftover kibble and laugh at

the grounded little lives we
choose inside the
worry, the routine, the glass

prisons we call home, cars,
restaurants, and offices,
never learning to fly free

Savage

Crazy means
believing your
sorry ass
belongs in
this country
because your
light-skinned
forefathers illegally
immigrated to
a land
in which
civilized nations
could be
slaughtered by
smallpox and
pistols and
broken promises
simply for
being here
first

Peeking through

"Only in the darkness can you see the stars." - MLK

In the beginning, we close 
our eyes. the 
pain is too much and

we can't bear to see

we stumble into each other
stroking one another's
faces, to assure ourselves that

others can't bear to see

any of this either, that 
when we open 
our eyes it will be bleaker 

than we can bear to see

So we peek one eye 
open, dizzied but 
knowing we cannot fight what 

we can't bear to see 

Locks

There is no gold in
these locks just
the weight of your ideals

The buzz

There is no 

rush, no bliss,

no overwhelming wave

of love or

clarity, just a 

phantom buzz in 

my pocket pulling

me to look

more frequently into

this black mirror

than a real one

Bitter

Why does that which is
supposed to make
me strong taste so bitter?

Cold front

They say no two snowflakes 

are exactly alike 

Her cold fronts were the 

same way: the 

biting fury rolled in like 

the kind of 

winter storm that would leave 
you homebound for 

days lost in the blinding 
whiteness of her righteous anger

The blizzard of words was 

always new, a 

nuance or phrase would form 
like a fresh 

barb on an ice crystal 

that would land 

crisp on your skin, stick 

and burn. So 

perfect. So precise. So cold 

it would chill your bones

Thunderstruck

He struck like lightening, 
brilliant and 

faster than the blink 

of an eye blackening 
silently 

before the thunderclap 

Outside my window

outside my window
the bamboo grows high and green
reaching for the bits
of sun between our buildings
snatching just enough to thrive

The crumbs

Brown and black bodies crawl
through our alleys
like ants at a picnic

sifting through the overflow of
our wastefulness for
the treasures we throw away

True name

I have searched for one 

who can make 

foreign syllables 

sound like his native 

tongue, as if 

he was born with my

name in his mouth, and

waited to 

whisper it back home