Ambergris

Ambergris encrusted earring lays
beneath receipts and change.
A tangible reminder of a night
long since past.

A powder-caked quarter settles
for change for a soda, still
wears the memory of our last dance.

I wonder what happened to you that night?
You kind of just disappeared from sight?

Whatever happened to me must've happened
to you; we both
kinda sorta disappeared from view.

The strappy black heels hiding behind the door
have been replaced for a more sensible shoe.

One that doesnt' remind me quite so much of you.

Days that you don't cross my mind
are still far between and few.

Everything's been blurry these last couple of weeks,
my eyes don't focus too well and the right one sort of leaks.

I'm missing who I thought I was and what we might have been.
I'm certain I'll get over you eventually, but when?

Big Love

I have an elephant named Love.
Begged her to stand still.
Instead, she pirouettes
too close to grandma's china.

Her trunk wails a familiar tune
Anita Baker and Luther Vandross
dare not croon, in mixed company.

Maybe James Brown, though.

Tail swinging, feet stomping;
Her mass can't contain her
excitement.  Anticipation of
the rare treat, a true friend,
she is complete.

A girl can't help to jubilee
at her first taste of destiny.

                             --For my You

Dear Emily,

Your words rest
in quiet proof
of an unfettered life.

Spared public shame
and private scorn,
never heralded: wife.

Not from your father
forced to cringe
from a stranger's touch,

Nor be belle
of any ball.

Life, for you, lay undefined,
waiting for your pen.

In your words lay
humble truths and
worlds yet unexplored,

a testament to
freedom, neither
cherished nor deplored.

No expectations
nor demands, no
pedestal from
which to fall--

One doesn't have
to have seen much
to have seen it all.

Baklava

Like so many layers of phyllo dough
my grief compounds itself
each time
my life touches death.

My grandfather's passing crushed me at five,
then a friend at thirteen took the joy out of life.
My mother, too young, muffled the world's buzz,
cocooning me in strife.

Each death weighs on me like
stones on a grave.

Each wave of grief
crushes me.

Daring me to be brave.

I want life how it used to be.
I want to be saved.
I'm exercising futility-
I know there's no escape.