Collecting

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 Collecting

I am collecting again: 
handmade ceramics,
the wonky ones discarded 
in thrift stores; brass animals
from afar or nearby; song
books, receptacles, notebooks, 
markers, movies and music
and friends. I collect friends. 
I crack open my heart,
show my soul to friends. 

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I Madonnari

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Something I Have Been Thinking About Lately (originally published as Daily Poem Practice Sept 2)

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*** if you are reading this on a cell phone, rotate it sideways. It's worth it, I promise.**** ****A practice inspired by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer's  A Hundred Falling Veils  ****   Something I Have Been Thinking About Lately I don’t remember when I started listening to Radio Bronco As a channel to a more fluent More connected version Of my Spanish speaking self.  I have been listening in the car While I wash dishes While I make dinner For some time now, though.  So imagine my horror When sided by my eldest A bilingual child not yet 8 When the Secretary of State Came over the airwaves And in plain English painted horror stories typical tropes about guatemaltecos, salvadoreños everybody, save mexicaños and ended it with “If you are here illegally,  know the US Government is coming for you!” As with all parenting so much of it is in real time: I could have switched it off. I could have said nothing. But instead I turned to her frightened eyes and said “There...
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Self Compassion Poem

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  Self Compassion Poem I saw that  you, bounding over heart full of joy,  head swirling with hope, synchronicities and baby- steps drooling down your chin like life’s ever melting popsicle. That hurt, when she turned away from you. That hurt, when she couldn’t meet you there. That hurt, when she took your promise and upped the anti with her doubt by saying “well, it’s your journey, and one day reality is gonna hit you like a slap in the face.” 
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Sobriety and Me (for my kids)

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Dish Diva

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