the last of the daylight cracked through the building sides one could tell it was after 5 pm the watermelon sized baby rats were out for their breakfast
she laid down to think of Jupiter her drug crooked back to the pavement scrawny bedazzled legs extended upward on the art building wall hieroglyphs of desperate youth her eyes scanned like Oklahoma driver’s radio then she noticed her left boot lost its heel the right boot had none to begin
sooty mullet waxy matted with environmental phlegm coughed out by bullshit talkers she looks toward the up and the moon tries to enter her nightly stage but as always held back by adoring tongue wagging angels watching for a ghetto bird sting
now stretched legs stiff uncrossed arms posed around her ribs she aches slightly the shallow in her breath helps to stave off those unaffordable desires that quickly become her monster jaws grinding she settles noticing a lone cluster of plastic hydrangeas bleached by the satellites looking down as a cherub babe
her soul comes and goes from door to door looking for a score body limbs head torso dirty flesh colored blanket 100th hand Betsey Johnson gym bag mildewed Wet n’ Wild goth girl pallet from 1985 somewhere between Hollywood and Union Station the overlay has lasted 20 years
the streets cacophony of laughter and cries lights scream to her good byes cop cars dog fights stabbings overdosed doves starvation American relief fleeing from here the NARCAN generation paper plate nutrition styrofoam hydration we recycle ourselves shallow is her breath brow sweats but no bread
inside hep C rots necessary functions ulcers void of burn no food no internal bleeding red cross she’s nailed to it the drums somewhere in Africa a cradle hands outlined in caves a body engulfed in darkness a mind she remembers remaining there
without knowing she’s there legs cramped stiff against the wall forever head reborn again sewer water baptized her eyes closed chest deep in its stillness head cocked to her right shoulder the angel of it won
Feminine Strength
shelter mom tankas





haiku soñador

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cypor6irJPh/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
shameless smile

Bubbe’s politics

for Rita and Marlon

buk,
i
think of
you today
it was tough
her screams
biting at my ears
meant for him
and her
and them
the whole lot
maybe Jesus too
buk,
the women around here
but who knew
i’m a woman too
born and bruised
and i don’t have a clue
but then again i was her
a long time ago
her hands jingling
her bling about
like falling feathers
from the boxing ducks
at MacArthur park
little waist
banded by Calvin Ks
why do us tough girls always dress like thugs?
mother issues grab her tissues
here come the waterworks
you’d say
buk, dude
work was hard today
the LA streets
me at her teat
this grimy Goddamned city
as she shared
about the girls she had
and the guys she fucked
all in a litany of blows and scars
her brothers left on her
mother called it teaching her the ropes
buk, i pray to you
were women like this
back when?
or has politics and Hollywood
fooled us?
broken afraid her fists she raised
fragile steel jaw
little girl unspoken
tender where she should be strong
she weeps over her barrettes
her brother broke when she was four
not about the busted lip
her lover gave her
or the county checks that can’t support her and her only child
buk, how can i counsel
when i haven’t been
consoled myself?
African Violets
it’s the poor fabrics we’ve worn all of our lives that have roughen our skin she said with a menthol sigh
her sister runs her ankles swollen with years of defeat and three lost sons one buried in the ground and two alive within a legal sepulchre
what the doctor say about the sugar in your blood and did Titi pay the light bill on time because the worker’s coming on Friday
a fly lands on her fractured hand and she shoots it away with her thirty five dollar salon acrylic thumb nail the charms and doodads were free
I’m suppose to cook dinner for Brother Murphy and his wife for the wake of his momma Lord rest her in peace I heard she left him some land in Tennessee
carefully following the mailman with her dark brown eyes she hopes to get a letter from her daughter telling her she’s won the fight against the slumlord in Selma
you know if we put our checks together we can buy Kayla that puppy she wants but how do we hide it from HACLA
the sweat on her brow she’s lied about playing it off as the vapors gets harder to hide under her cornrows as the tumor begins to rise
you should take some B vitamins for your aches and pains by the way Dwayne called at 8 talking about he wants his money by tomorrow
the African Violet out on her patio turns to look at her as she fill a cracked styrofoam cup with cool water from the sink takes a silent sip and quenches the soil of the thirsty velvety faces
junk one

aging on prozac
