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Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Reunion

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on July 5, 2026| 3 Comments »


 
 
After the kazoos and champagne and hula hoops,
after the blueberry pie, after the napkins folded
and unfolded and crumpled, after the impromptu
parade on the drive, after the house full of laughter
and music, after the glow sticks, the glittering headbands, 
the mountain of dishes washed and dried and put away 
there was that moment when we sat on the couch,
just the two of us. You held my hand. We said nothing.
Like two swallows, done swooping for the day
who finally enter the nest they have built together, 
snuggling at last on the rim. 

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One Citizen

Posted in Uncategorized on July 3, 2026| 2 Comments »

fearing the flag
no longer represents me
I start to fly the flag

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One Strange Gift

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on July 2, 2026| 1 Comment »

 

so grateful to share 
it with you—
this loneliness

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The Unknown Women

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on July 1, 2026| 2 Comments »


 
 
They, too, once had gardens filled 
with succulent dark leaves and firm
swollen roots they planted to feed 
their family, their community, themselves. 
They, too, would walk the rows and tug 
at weeds and make small, quirky bouquets
to take to the graves of their loved ones. 
I don’t know why their gardens are gone now. 
Perhaps covered in ash from wildfire. 
Perhaps bombed out and torn up by war. 
Perhaps transformed to dust by drought. 
Or perhaps they are simply too old now 
to pick up the trowel, the shovel,
the hoe. But the women remember 
how they marveled at the pea vines climbing 
the fence to produce a profusion of sweet 
green pods dangling on the wire. 
I long to feed them from these beds, 
if not the food itself, feed them at least the ongoing
dream of garden, as someday I, too,
will be offered the dream through the hands 
and thoughts of another woman who finds herself
standing in the midst of abundance longing
to share it with all the women who can’t 
find their way into the garden today.
Not knowing how to bless them, I bless them anyway
as I have been blessed, and I transplant calendula,
deadhead the cosmos, harvest
heads of garlic, brush the loose dirt away. 

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At the Edge

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on June 30, 2026| 2 Comments »


 
 
The bright red glow of wildfire flared up 
into the night, a terrible, beautiful, changing glow.
We couldn’t not look, students of fire 
that we are, and I was suddenly too aware 
of the dry and brittle parts of myself, places
parched as these Cimarron mountains. 
How easily it can all go up. 
We are asked to live this life
that can combust in an instant,
asked to pull the unstoppable into our lungs.
The glow continued to blaze, to leap up. 
It burned. I could not stop watching
the tower of flame, the way it charged the night.

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Kinship

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on June 29, 2026| Leave a Comment »


for James and Elena
 
 
We three sit
on large rocks
in the middle
of the river
like an earthbound
constellation. As
we speak and
splash, I see
in my mind
the invisible lines
that join us,
and we become
a new shape
we can use
to navigate through
this day, our
daily gift. Is
it any wonder
when we rise,
we are shining?

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Learning from the High Wire Walkers

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on June 28, 2026| 4 Comments »


 
 
First, they start close to the floor,
practice walking heel to toe, practice
bouncing and turning and gazing 
at a distant object instead of looking
down at their feet. As the stakes
and the rope get higher, they 
begin to practice failure. Practice
hanging from the wire for long
periods of time. Practice holding
their own weight. This. Perhaps 
this is what we are doing now 
with democracy. Practicing
how to hold up our weight. 
Don’t look down. Don’t look down. 
View it all as practice. Trust that balance
depends on tension. Trust that
every step matters.

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In the Junkyard of the Heart

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on June 27, 2026| 4 Comments »

all those feelings of brokenness
I tried to throw away
now shining in the starlight

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Hanging Out with the Benedictines

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on June 26, 2026| 6 Comments »


 

                  for Sister Roseann and the Monastic Congregation of St. Scholastica
 
On the left wrist of the nun 
with the silver hair and soft eyes
was a bracelet made by a child.
Small white cubes with black all caps
proclaimed, “NEVER GROW UP.”
With an impish shrug of her shoulders 
she explained she might have written
“NEVER GIVE UP.” And I thought 
how for fifteen hundred years
her order has flourished through
the rise and fall of the Mongol Empire, 
The British Empire, the Aztecs, 
Bart Simpson, Mickey Mouse. 
Has grown through the introduction of zero
as a standalone number and paper money,
gunpowder and windmills and the compass. 
Has seen the creation of moveable type
and the steam engine, has witnessed 
the telegraph and email and bots that answer the phone.
And I felt it inside her, still growing,
the devotion of centuries, the kind of faith 
that lives on past plastic bracelets,
cherry Twizzlers and Instagram, a community
grown in the deep, rich soil of humility, 
simplicity, hospitality, moderation and prayer.
I felt it in her open smile, in the
kind way she held my hand in hers,
in the way she reframed her work
as faithfulness, I felt her trust
that some things continue to prosper
against all odds, this, the gift of never 
growing up, of never giving up, 
of ever growing beyond understanding.

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While Standing in the Field of Fireflies

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on June 25, 2026| 1 Comment »


she felt the gift 
of her own darkness
how it uplifts
even the smallest light
as treasure

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