i’m with Zoe

mbrazfield (c) 2024

i too want a president who has cried at night wondering where bread will come for their babies tomorrow a president who has leukemia addicted to crack and who goes days without eating lays on the concrete because a roof is unaffordable this president must outrun the voices in their head that tells them to eat rat poison my president must know the feel of a baton beating on their skull for not having money to enroll in Princeton or Harvard and being sentenced to perpetual poverty they must definitely have the wherewithal to spend 12 hours in line at the county office to fill out a five foot tall stack of forms to be considered to qualify for a monthly $225 benefit to pay for the mandatory American dream among other qualities this president must know the stench of a 5 day corpse with cracked ribs no hope who the system failed and blew off it will come in handy to know what it’s like to be called a bitch faggot slut wet back whore nigger spic camel jockey cracker and gook to feel their veins run cold on frightful nights of waiting in deserted bus stops being cat called by pimps with machine guns ready to claim and capitalize on your pussy and i want the president who will never forget that the boss are we the people who know what its like to live day and night under the above circumstances

* inspired by the great Zoe Leonard

how do i tell the Moon

mbrazfield (c) 2024

how do i tell the Moon that her Venus is gone
far from everything we know high away past the Pleiades and the Milky Way but always in the vicinity of higher power

how do i tell the Moon that her Venus is gone way past forever yet eternally  interwoven in star dust and holy silent breaths caressing her head after she’s wept too much

how do i tell the Moon that her Venus is of such love magnitude that we can’t see her as she holds us in her loving arms ebbing and flowing us warmly in her arms

clouds with wires

mbrazfield (c) 2024

i like my clouds with some wires
memories of kindergarten
Franklin’s kites and keys
corduroy jackets pigtails

i like my sky with blue infinity
endless forever high up
United Nations NPR
Joe Strummer high gas prices

wires are reminders to my eyes
finish lines running away from
eventually crossing them
grinning old girl am i

blue inks on papers change
trajectories of lives
bars in language community
null void twisted noise

clouds pure shamanic puff
feeding the ducks in Lincoln Heights
remember those we lost
immortalized on walls
ironically in life that’s all they’ve known

wires clouds blue sky songs
baking bread train track grease
cool wind cigarette butts
let my mind be silent today

mbrazfield (c) 2024