Some images fade/love wends our way/through the off road/insisting on taking chances/the love that we once knew/is not afraid of/indeed resides within/the light

Shine shoes/brush fedora hat/fold handkerchief/to geometric pleasure/these duties incorporated into life/newspaper devoured/bridge game played/east/west/north/south/horoscope/jumble/and the phone rang/sisters in another borough/faithful in duty another way of love/competed to gloat/who completed the jumble/solved the puzzle of the day/first

On time/I want to run outside and shout/world/on time/soon/she’ll be in the house/in these arms/and we’ll dream up some/wishes/soon/I’ll do what mothering/stored up/blasts off/like the new engine/ that needs no fuel/my molecules/vibrations/of love/will take us to the moon

I knew her/not as a child/but as a motherly crony/friend of my mother/ beloved goddaughter/of my father/there were times when/a giggle/a certain look/made me believe the child/that was/knew the brightest/youngest love of my father/that love stored in years/years we never knew/could only imagine

He learned Spanish/also Papiamento/also Dutch/learned to type overnight on a broken typewriter to get a job/in Curacao/so it was natural/to go from boarder/to family friend/to family/to Delio/revered Godfather/ the families/children/adored his generous loving and kind presence/arriving from distant shores/he held on to relationships like a sailor lashed to the boat/in life’s storm

We are connected/in times of grief/of anguished vigil/blessed to bear witness/blessed to stroke your sweet hand/face/the cry for healing/with you/we are connected/like no others/to you I have turned and returned/now turn to me/know that I am here/let me croak a verse/a sweet song to help you rest

Do families still gather/to model intense study/to find serene love/in just being together/to peer back at the gathering of memories/in wonder/treasure the ways we were taught to play and to think/rejoicing/quietly/ weaving family life/gathered around the table of love

Prison industrial complex/jobs and livelihood of whole dismal towns/dismal lives/rely on feeding the fodder of the poor/labeled dehumanized to the grinding slavering industry/traded on the stock market/like other markets long ago/over my head/over her head/was there music in the air/freedom/oh freedom over me/ before I’d be a slave/I’d be buried in my grave/or did she spread her arms/on another tree/and cry/my God/why have you forsaken me/

When people you’ve loved fiercely/swan elegant/dignified/erudite/also beautiful shades of brown/nothing seems out of order/love and faith abound/then one childish day/ hate creeps into the room/never tainting your love and awe/filed away/for strength/hardly comprehensible/to be the descendant/of those strong enough/to survive hate/structural/dehumanizing hate/you think this will make me/strong/unafraid/until someday you understand/the terror/constant sick sad fear/they lived with/and sang hymns straight in the maw of dehumanization/we are not entitled/you learn with sorrow/ not like some/to be in this world without the night terror of prayer/not yet/but my bright beautiful daughter/not yet/but someday

Change falls/in the guise of utter discontinuity/poised/we absorb/catching a perfect and utterly distinct morsel/in a waiting and open pose