i've always rushed underneath the scalding water
in hopes of it melting me away
but the only thing it really does
is muffle my cries of confusion and fear
i wish i could vanish
like the vapors in the steaming room
silently and slowly
disappear

i still try to remember
to take my boots off
at the door

my feet are wet
from walking in the rain

i leave laetoli footprints
on the pine floor
-like the first man

trying to walk upright
but can't seem to
get it straight

There's a lot of empty space
in a house
so full of quiet

wishing for thunder.

r ~ 9/5/14

all these years
of digging square holes
and i still don't know
why we stopped building
round houses

a mindset
is a terrible thing to change

square houses, graves
and hospital corners
are harder to maintain

circular places
make an impact
less direct
and more peaceful

an earth lodge
on the knife river
can teach us
to feel at home

we lose sight
of small things forgotten.

r ~ 9/11/14

short legs
patched jeans
kicking leaves
piled to my knees

remembering color
living in sea salt pines
leaves little to imagine
of autumn rhymes

sweetgum sourwood birch
sycamore and dogwood
apple leaves beneath the plum tree
ash hickory maple and oak
mountains afire in Tennessee

eyes closed
smell of smoke-
kicking leaves
to the wind.

r ~ 9/16/14

you spoke the words and they came true—
heaven had a crush on you.
they placed you on that cold bronze throne
as "gold dust rained down in sierra leone."

The shoreline waits,
But she will not go,
"It is too late" she says
And knows
The debris and the tatters
Mark her out.

Visitors run to the shore
They see the sun and the Dutch sky
Big, like their lives.

She turns in her bed
And sinks down low.

Age, race, gender, height
Curly, straight, dark, light,
Tall, short, thin, wide,
Nobody's the same outside.

Chinese, Asian, Indian,
Portuguese or American,
We're born into
Our environments.

But if one plus one is two,
Nobody tries to argue,
Because numbers have
unchanging values,
and humans
should
too.

Skin and bones,
Heart and soul,
And that alone,
Makes us valuable.

We are skin and bones,
We are heart and soul,
We are all the same,
And our values don't change.

Age, race, gender, height,
We are one,
And we're all alright.
Skin and bones,
Heart and soul,
We're all the same,
And our values don't change.

With regards to Thomas Sayers Ellis*

Look at the
    Lucent lava lamps,
Dark craters
    Hiring hands.
We walked,
    Mimicking magma.
Hot, why is
    This heat?
Forget Vulcan
    And his illusion
Of kaleidoscopes,
    A rip tide
On the shore
    Of our conscious minds.
We held fire,
    Pretending to swim
Underground,
    But only out
Of pure respect.
    Some had boots
Made with
    The clippings
Of funky tripwire,
    Others wore suits
With goggles
    Clamped to their faces,
Gripping like
    Bay Area earthquakes.
One-by-one,
    Jang-strangs were
Attached to us and
    Hurled into the Pit
With rhythmic rituals,
    Waves of S and P
Flailed away
    Like flags.
One nation
    Under a new.
No one looked away
    From the fiery daze.
No one wept.