Nebulous

Make my heart explode all over this bed so my skin and bits of ribs and lungs and blood cover the sheets. Then you’ll see how nothing was inside me from the start, so there was nothing to be lost after all. I must be a black hole the way light keeps coming toward me like it can’t bear to stay away. I miss that spark that lit me up, back when I felt like more than stardust floating helplessly through space. What is this place, where hope can’t hang around and there’s no air to breathe?

First published in Meniscus Literary Journal.

Bleached

A palm beach buried in snow
white as a blank page
that waits for a story I’ll never write

I look ahead instead
at the future
pale as death unknown

And we’ll never know
the scream of the tree as it fell
the painful saw
the pulp it was pressed into

Or the chipping
the beating
the bleach that ripped away its hue
that stained it white
and left it here
for who

First published in Orenaug Mountain Poetry Journal

The world I come from wasn’t like this

In the land where I grew up
Everyone knew that racism is ugly
Everyone knew that Nazis are evil
And that hate is dangerous
The land where I grew up took in refugees
Gave them hope and sheltered them from enemies
Offered jobs and schools and churches of all kinds
But not much was taught about slaveowners
Not much was taught about genocide
Not much was taught about how it came to be
Except to say that it was destiny
Just look at this beautiful land
At the mountains and prairies and
Opportunities
Look how free you are in this world
To dream about wealth and safety
Where not much is taught about empathy
And not much is taught
About propaganda