Jacarandas Bloom

for JCL

On 8th Street,
where the legless and drug addicted
mumble pleading eyes
for the change in your pocket,

On Raymond Ave,
where teen shotandkilled
sparked retaliation gunfire and prayer,

we fast forward to exhale.

Arthritic fingertips of trees secrete hope:
lavender droplets of ice cream fall
carpeting the sidewalks in bubble wrap.
Our eyes waft skyward to birdsong.

The trees have not forgotten it is Spring.

Tonight

Recently, one man, who drinks every day on the corner of Adams and Normandie, told me at 7am: "be careful out here, a lot of ugly things happen here. I dont do drugs, I dont smoke, but I may drink too much." When I am coming home from work at 5:30 he is still on the corner, sometimes with the brown paper bag poorly disguising his drink.

Today, a woman who is self described, black, just light skinned, told me: "be careful and if anyone gives you trouble, tell em your my cousin. Theyll leave you alone." She also rambled about the men on the corner and I couldnt understand her, but she said, Its not what you do its how you do it. I can't be certain, but i think she was referring to how the men do drugs on the corner. As she repeated its not what you do, but how you do it, it gave me the feeling that she did drugs too, but from the inside of her house. I have no idea.

I feel like both of the people were justifying themselves to me, and warning me. As i walked over the constant dispersal of broken glass and graffiti, i realized I live in the 'hood. Why did they need to justify themselves to me and warn me?

The helicopters are flying overhead. I heard there was a shooting on Normandie (closer to Leighton). There was a shooting spree in Manila today. Taco truck drivers are fined and put in jail for being parked in one spot for more than an hour. The death toll is rising in China and Burma. The flags are flown at half mast in both countries. I process renewals and think about poetry. We read the bible. In Johannesburg, Zimbabweans are targeted for death and fists by the hungry South Africans trying not to be the 25% unemployed. Bomb explode in India, Lebanon, Iraq. Macy's had a sale today.

The Lord is the Alpha and the Omega. There is nothing that is impossible for him. His Mercy endures for ever. Even the darkness is light to him.

This I believe and it is only because I believe this, I am able to sleep tonight. This night, that was proceeded by this day and will be followed by a tomorrow that is much like today.

The Trapped

The Trapped

The newspapers hadn't mentioned it
but the heavens naturalized 22,956 new citizens today
and were preparing with banners, cake and feather pillows
for the numbers to stretch into the 100s of thousands.

The photos from Burma were shipments of rice that couldn't
make it over the border, nuns chopping up tree debris,
and rotting bodies floating in the lakethe country had become,

but the stiff fingers of the dead aunts and uncles,
sons and daughters, mothers and fathers
pointed to the grey, ornate skies, where the rains came from.

The dead had climbed into the watery sky
on gospel songs of slaves,on the skirts of indiginas,
on the proverbs of farmers

On a wall of water that ripped breath and roof from lung and land
they marched, dead and out of reach
of the sound proofed fingers of the Tatmadaw
whispering the names of the family left behind.

Do I Qualify for Superhero-dom?

i helped a lady find her keys in her purse en espanol.
i swallowed a radioactive pill.
i walked 2.6 miles in sandals.
i worked from 10-2 and took a two hour lunch.