woman i love you

mbrazfield (c) 2024

i see you in the car
on my feet
the bus
city streets
poetry in your
wrinkled hands
forehead and jowls
the news of your town
your home and world
raw through your glare
i love you deeply
from afar like you
definitely more
sometimes
your hair the roots
and crown of
the frame of you
patient like the Ruth
wisdom in your step
woman don’t look at me
untethered daughter
i reach for the hem
of your overwhelmingly
heavy garment
i worship you a cruel goddess
only because you love deeply
and lose infinitely
your cracked toe nails
calloused to defeat
finger nails ready for the meet
we have always been running
you have always been creating
woman i love you from afar

porra, papai

mbrazfield (c) 2024

some days were sad gray uneventful
most days were brutal confusing painful
rarely did we need or want to smile
the looks the words the anger the hate the ridicule the shame the blame the abandonment
marching on in my head time middle fingered me on my knees crawling on the tarmac of the road to hell paved with no intention
Mutter turned her head like a queen in agreement
i could not comprehend
where do i make sense
papai misguided man
leading dragging his daughter
slaughter wood chipper of life
but i’m grown now
your dice followed you to where you went
my words hushed heaven will never live here anymore Gehenna had bought the country
healing compassion empathy sympathy turning of the cheeks fasting sacrificing keeping score patronizing scarification complete spirit annihilation
i was never meant to be your Issac

another time

mbrazfield (c) 2024

flag display in the El Pavo Real DTLA jewelry gallery on Broadway these beauties have hung there since my kidhood seeing them there so dignified brought back so many wonderful and tragic memories Bruce Lee movies arcades colorful candied almonds parents embroiled in DV fear panic and coloring books fat crayons my pigtails and witnessing fatal drunk fights the stars in the sky an upward continuum of the light bulbs on the marquees and the ever hypnotic Million Dollar Theater and the frightening giant Victor’s Clothing blue groom and so forth and so on Los Angeles here I am your daughter….