SC Antepasados

ANTEPASSADOS 1 A blackbird passes above where the world moves over the horizon, to the upper air, thinness beyond breath, shifting bodies, many voices. 2 Years of lift and scrape, slip and crack, the Siskiyou mountains. My gold hunter ancestors, their prints on yellow ore, memory of gold nuggets. 3 With beating wings, they slip…

AT NIGHT IN THE FORT JONES CEMETERY When the night doesn’t wish to be darkness, the distance that divides the living and the dead closes in. A letting go moment, and her lantern lifts her ancestors into light. Voices call from the dirt, rise into the air of the living. They are all here, gold…

My Mother’s Hands My mother bore the burden On a cold and snowy morn, Grandma heeded the call Into her hands I was born. From her hands to my mother’s I was handed into her arms. I still remember her golden voice Singing lullabies in harmonic tones, Her hands strumming strings, Chord progressions she made…

Mothers A mother knows her child From the moment of conception, When a sacred bond is born. Bound by blood and soul, She risks her life to give new life, She surrenders herself To ensure her child will survive, She gives all of her heart and soul, Determined her child will thrive. Mothers are a…

This poem was not created in the Switchboard Connections workshop, but was read during the public reading because of its thematic appropriateness. What Do I Hear? Flat blue-gray rosy clouds Collaged against yon pale sky, Their deckled edges indistinct Save for torn gaps so sharply backlit Where the too-bright sun of ending day Sneaks, peeks,…

This poem was not created in the Switchboard Connections workshop, but was read during the public reading because of its thematic appropriateness.   You are not with me, save by absence It is night here, and I’m half awake The dim light is like the pale sensation That there once was a fullness; A fulness…

Boomerang Back Trees are colorfully painted In an abstract way Perhaps painted into the forest To supplement the burnt terrain Yellow hands Red hands Blue hands Brown hands Purple hands too Reaching down and over And up to the sky As if loved ones are searching For long ago good-byes By the boomerangs, One hand…

Passion is Nigh He pondered the dilemma The quandary taking over the night He caressed her over and over And whispered sweet nothings into her ear Their love was heightened by saliva Whilst their bodies became twisted She ever so lightly pulled away And turned her head He panted frantically Hanging his head, He sat…

A Mother and Child Union A young girl enveloped in her mother’s arms, Completely at peace with Complete trust displayed, The mother holds her eyes open Anticipating the girl’s needs Her back is taunt, And strong enough to Support a lifetime of whoas That may come their way She rocks her baby quietly Yet surrounded…

Too Far Down I tried to help. But how could I have saved him from jumping? This modern world so full of rooftops above hard pavement and bridges over tiding turbid water. He was only one – so many others! – even the would-be savior burns himself out. He was only one – all of…