Innocence

The first tooth I lost
fell to the kitchen floor.
I lay my cheek on the cold tile
peering under mahogany cabinets
and cushioned chairs until I found it,
nestled between a long lost cheerio and the table leg.
I picked it up as a jeweler would a diamond,
held it up for all to see.
When night fell
and the tooth fairy was set to come,
I hid the tooth not under my heart shaped pillow
guarded by my army of fuzzy friends,
but in my secret hiding place,
where the dresser didn’t quite meet the wall
not even a fairy could find it.
No one could take it away from me.
Even for a quarter.


-Updated 4/15/18

Flight

The pull in your stomach
as you begin to fall.
The wind screams in your ears
as gravity grabs you
into its embrace.
The tug of your shoulders as wings
black as cinder, light as the sun’s rays
stretch out from your shoulder blades,
like a butterfly from a cocoon.
stretching towards the heavens.
And you soar.
The clouds part before you as you own the sky
turning and wheeling with the hawks.
Fighting gravity. Fighting time.
The summit of your youth flashes by as you soar higher still.
Surmounting your past.
But like paper to flame, your wings crumble to mourners ash
as the sun greets you with the heat of the day.
The smoke fills your nose, the ash your eyes.
You turn and wheel but the hawks are gone.
Blue above and below as they merge.
Fear pulls your stomach
as you begin to fall.


-Updated 5/3/2018

of Summer Days

The window stood witness over summer's green grass where children play,
over the house’s brick facade, promising warm fires to melt winter’s toes
over a mother’s morning embraces more enticing than coffee
over bright eyed smiles lighting up the house
over chicken soup bubbling when fevers ran high
over brown paper lunch bags on the first day of school.
But now they stand witness to nighttime smokes
and raised voices in the kitchen
and lonely meals
and pillows muffling sobs.

The grass is turning brown.

-Updated 5/3/18