The perfect storm

The hardest thing to learn
as a parent
is when to be the
umbrella
and when to
walk behind and let them
fall into that puddle
alone


--

April PAD Day 9 - shelter 

The brewery

My dad drank too much.
He shot bourbon at bars
and barbed insults at home.

The anger brewed inside him,
a biting mash of memories
aging in rows of barrels

running from breast to bowel,
pickling his insides as he
forced us each to drink

the poison of his past.

--

April PAD Day 8 - peaceful or violent

War ... what is it good for?

I will never understand why
people think that
violence can bring about peace

--

April PAD Day 8 - violent or peaceful

Frozen in time

You say that
she's ancient history
but here I
am chipping away
at the rock
hard sediment encasing
your fossilized heart

--
April PAD Day 5 - discovery

Mirror, mirror

Searching to find myself
reflected in the eyes
of strangers

unwilling to stare at
the stranger behind my
own eyes

--

April PAD Day 7 - self-portrait

Night life

Six stars are
shining through the inky blue
ether of evening

battling the buzzing,
happy haze of city life,
where the lights

never go out,
and downtown domestics always do;
where screens glow

from every wall
and in every pocket as
we search for

meaning at the
speed of 4G two inches
from our faces

and forget that
all the answers are always
right above us

if we'd just
take a moment to breathe
and look up

--

April PAD Day 6 - night

Since we both like fruit

We ran into each other
at the market
poking and prodding the pears,

assessing them like the men
in our lives,
drawn in by the promise

of sweetness while tenderly pressing
to uncover the
hidden bruises that always seem

to spoil the moments we
long to savor
 

--

April PAD Day 4 - since (blank)

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

Treading water

I carried you
held your head above water
when you were
drowning in misery

I drowned with you
unable to float us both
when the burden
you carried sunk
us both


--

April PAD Day 2 - voyage

When smoke gets in your eyes

How could I
see the smoke signals you
were sending me

when I didn't
even notice that our home
was on fire

--

April PAD Day 3 - message