Germinating my tomatoes

after I brush my teeth

I dutifully touch it to the little yellow flowers,

vibrating the little teeny weeny pollens so 

they will tumble geefully into the ovary

A tomato will be born!

necessities at work

Earl Grey tea with honey.

the woman down the hall coughs and sneezes,

spewing clouds of virus laden droplets to 

all of her friends and colleagues.

I'll stay in my office, or walk the other direction,

a necessity for this flu season, for this co-worker

she doesn't use soap.

dark chocolate with a center of almond butter

to free the mind, to accelerate thinking, because

it tastes so good and my trusty calculator,

I bond with everyone who has one, the HP 11C.

We are an elite club indeed.

Writing code instead of poems

hunched over the laptop writing code
A = linspace(1,100);  X(:,1) = A
I should be writing of dancing maculele and
Snow tires crunching on unplowed bike paths,
Of the border collie running towards me in an
Exuberant leap
But no - Monday creeps upon me on Saturday and
Sunday, deadlines looming and the quotidien
Pleasures hidden under me, hunched over writing
Code, not poetry.

a different world

they may not have much, a few skyscrapers

towering over packed dirt fields,

the call to prayer five times a day

but they have freedom from violence.

they don't walk to university wondering if 

they will survive the day, whether they said

the last good-bye to friends and family.

their feet are covered in dust as most roads

are not paved, ISIS fighters do not roam

the streets or fly overhead.

they may not have much, but they

have freedom from fear

that is freedom

working out in the snow

lifting weights with a snow shovel

no need for a gym

no need for a personal trainer

or fancy yoga pants

no need for fans to cool you

or expensive shoes, no need 

for a car to take you there or

the perfect class on the right day,

today is the perfect day

shoveling snow under blue sky.

slogging through the snow, alone

the snow fell heavily onto my shoulders,
arms and legs, the leaden movement of my bike tires
through inches of fluffy snow, my breath froze
onto my glasses and the world turned white
I was alone on this path of cold and white,
the cars rushed by on the adjacent road
a camouflage of quiet white.

hangin' out with Tess

she wears pajamas at noon
and frets over whether the banana bread
is overcooked
she notes that she didn't mix the batter very well
we bite into some pockets of salt
and laugh
it's all good.
so we lean over our art work, be what it may,
not particularly attractive, watercolors smeared across
ink and badly drawn on top of it
but as with the banana bread, handmade with love
and delicious

Eighteen school shootings so far this year

shall we pray again?
send our thoughts and good wishes
to the seventeen kids who just died at
at the hands of a deranged man, angry,
carrying a semiautomatic weapon.
shall we send condolence cards to the
bereaved parents assuring them that
'they're in a better place" where people
can't carry around killing machines.
I never prayed .
I contacted my congressMAN
he never did anything.
so here we are again.
seventeen dead
many more to come.

Be My Valatine

speaking up

only by speaking up
will evil and hatred be swept away
by warmer winds, those that cradle
but also insist
he is gone now
and we can swing our legs high
with no fear, we can dance under
smiling eyes, he has been swept
away, may he reassemble himself
somewhere and find peace.

staying away

he is a tornado of anger, a wind
of fury that pulls us into its vortex;
blows acid tears into our faces
his is the face of suffering as he
hoots involuntarily, twisting his
neck into impossible shapes, his jaw
cracking as it opens into a black cave
of sharp white teeth and a thickened
tongue, his legs swinging high then
catching my ankles to pull me to the
ground, a shared ground that I
run from, let me stay away.

the joy of walking the dog in the rain

the joy of walking the dog in the rain,

the feel of raindrops on your cheeks

their patter on your jacket

how the sidewalks start to glisten

how when you look up, a huge rainbow

greets you, a double rainbow fills the

sky, rising above the busy traffic 

of our human lives.

napping until it's too late to eat

they all know that I nap
having thrown my head against a rock
and they all know I love to eat,
especially when I don't have to cook
maybe they know I do capoeira after dinner
after I stuff myself with Stephen's home cooked meal
and my stomach bulges out with happiness.
they don't know that I want to throw up
when I throw my first kicks
and I chastise myself for eating so much
before vigorous exercise
I better nap until it's too late
to eat dinner
I'll feel better for it.

in defense of jaywalking

we stand, poised to run, on the curb
watching the cars crawl by, not a single set
of eyes looks towards us to motion us to cross
even though
even though this kind act of 5 seconds delay
would cost them nothing, rejoining the
prison of driving at the next light.
so we stand, poised to run, through
the line of cars, their eyes never
diverting from the bumper of the car
in front.
and we stand, poised to run, knowing
that a cross-walk could be there
but it still isn't, is it.