now and then

salvation through

a zinnia

*Published in the August 2022 issue of Stardust Haiku 

in your pulse the softness of violet

*Published by Scarlet Dragonfly Journal on 8/20/22

hidden oak

teach me to live

without hubris

*Published in The Haiku Foundation’s Haiku Dialogue on 8/10/22

almost

instinctively you reached

for my body // hip hold

for comfort

you know i would have preferred

a beginning in the ending

i found another

tepid soul to consume my tongue

swan dive into a pool

of molten water

*Published by Fresh Out: An Arts and Poetry Collective on 8/10/22

 magenta a melodic stream

*Published in The Haiku Foundation’s Haiku Dialogue on 8/5/22

an endless ocean

such are

the dreams of mine

*Published in the August 2022 issue of brass bell: a haiku journal

 everything i no longer crave after the forest

*Published by Cold Moon Journal on 7/30/22

shh...

the stars

are speaking

*Published in The Haiku Foundation’s Haiku Dialogue on 7/27/22

fire crackles the algebra within a petal

*Published by Cold Moon Journal on 7/26/22

 hot again

but i’m not talking

about the weather

*Published by Haikuniverse on 7/23/22

i am everywhere the wave unfurls

*Published by Cold Moon Journal on 7/19/22

 the rain on my body remembering yours

*Published by Cold Moon Journal on 7/15/22

 on forgiving the wind i am weary

*Published by Cold Moon Journal on 7/12/22

 quite silly, indeed

to say that

a rose is

only a rose

*Published by Fresh Out: An Arts and Poetry Collective on 7/10/22

 more radioactive than a lily after rain

*Published by Cold Moon Journal on 7/6/22

after this life a poppy seed

*Published in The Haiku Foundation’s Haiku Dialogue on 7/6/22

swaying in dawn’s blush an ancient dialect

*Published by Cold Moon Journal on 7/4/22

not even twilight can contain this silence

*Published in the July 2022 issue of brass bell: a haiku journal

 to be

a woman

to be

the sea

*Published by Cold Moon Journal on 6/22/22

 within my grasp the echo of Saturn

*Published by Cold Moon Journal on 6/20/22

right now

it’s hard to find beauty

in the wreckage of my life

with a fist raised

i share my anger with the trees

surely they must know

what it’s like to be torn asunder

*Published by Fresh Out: An Arts and Poetry Collective on 6/9/22

 oh how easily i soak up the folds of a primrose

*

intimacy like the way freesia exhales

*Published in the June 2022 issue of brass bell: a haiku journal

 the air in my lungs a storm

*Published by Cold Moon Journal on 5/17/22

Lazarus

i grew up on

the wrong side of radiation

a place where trains derailed

and the sky hailed Satan

you hung the paddle like a cross

and the cross became a bullet

they say chemicals were dumped

into the water the soil the air

but my blood was poisoned long before

i took my first step on this earth

mother once praised you

by saying you punched

her pregnant belly only once

praise God

apparently he was there somewhere

atomically in the crack of the carpet

when you

molested me

when i was 14 i thought it was odd

how i remembered almost nothing prior

to the age of 10

but i remember my sister almost dying

at the age of two

and that cancer was an open secret // grave

in our town

when we left

you took me and my sister back

one last hurrah in the old house

why we were naked i don't know

but i do know

you eventually destroyed those photo negatives

you weren't a pedophile

of course

and The Mound didn't kill

the residents of Miamisburg, Ohio

*Published by Poetry Super Highway (Poet of the Week: May 16 - 22, 2022)

 crow...

one of us

knows freedom

*Published by Cold Moon Journal on 5/10/22