Because sometimes I need reminding that my hardships are not

Scarcity

brought home whole milk honey when
store was out of non-fat vanilla

resorted to pinto beans because
store discontinued yellow lentils

preferred pork best by 18th
today is 22nd

extra-firm tofu missing from shelf
had to settle on silky softness

plastic pull-ring pulled apart
store compensated for troubling

plenty of roasted, salted seed sorts
no packages of raw

Inspired by Syon House and the research of Vinzenz Brinkmann

Don the new self, created by God, 

in truth’s righteousness and holiness 

Ephesians 4:24 

True Colors

The Great Hall relished these moments to itself 

No more guides roting through Neoclassical exemplars 

No more tourists freezing the perfect memories in frames 

Nothing apparent but the Duke’s beloved blacks and whites

From the Dying Gaul hunched in Southern shadow 

To Apollo pedestaled in Northern bright

An empty checkerboard stretching between them

Until the sun rays slanting through the clerestory

Set fireworks exploding 

Green malachite 

Blue azurite

Red cinnabar 

Yellow and ocher from arsenic

Black of burned bone and vine

Reminders of the Greek aesthetic exposed 

To those willing to witness the gaudy truth

Little

"Oranges" by Gabbie Herzberg

My poem "Little" was published in the 2020 edition of Cedar Valley Divide.  The painting above is my favorite image from the journal, and it's hyperlinked to the journal's online version.

Learned about the Moonlight Towers on Power Trip, a PBS series

Ben Sklar for The New York Times

This is the judgment-

that the light has come into the cosmos

and the people loved the darkness 

more than the light

because their works were evil

     John 3: 19

The Moonlight Tower Accuses

Some Austinites 

say it was the buzzing

like hundreds of murder hornets in assembly

each mandible moving at once

reporting on the success of that day’s slaughter

Other Austonians 

say it was the burning

carbon ash floating beyond a circle 

with a radius of fifteen hundred feet

never sure where on what or who it would catch

Bu I know the truth was

the blinding

light of a thousand candles arcing over the streets

revealing every definite detail

they wished to obfuscate

Inspired By The Message, John 1:1-2; Started in Poetry & Wellness workshop taught by Emily Spencer

I was with him, 

the helpmate he created with,

rejoicing before him 

each day all the time

Proverbs 8:30

In Readiness From Day One

Watching Mommy measure the dry

Slowly stirring in the wet

Making all things moist

Eager to take a turn of the spoon

Pouring the mix for heating

Puffing up with delight when she says

“My little helper, 

Taste what we made

Together.”

After Yesterday's Storm

Forsook

Emerging from shelters

Dazed by sun following storm

Finding messages beaded

In every North-facing window screen

Around town

Braille-shaped rain droplets reading

“Condolences on your loss”

The Tax Day That Wasn't

JOHN TLUMACKI/Boston GLOBE STAFF

The Tax Day That Wasn’t

I spoke to my grandmother today

Through her nursing home window

Framed by frozen forsythia.

Modeling the white straw hat

Navy ribbon bowed, streaming in twins

Would have to wait.

My daughter's face had appeared haloed

Holding the hat secure to her head

Other hand holding her basket

Spilling over with booty

Scattered around our backyard.

Easy to fill up when you’re alone.

She wanted to go right then

Show Great-Granny bonnet, basket, bunny

Her Easter Best.

Wednesday we will after naptime I promised.

Then the snow fell.

Different Postures

DOUGLAS QUAN/TORONTO STAR

Different Postures

Familiar whimper
Same sound made when the candidate I caucused for dropped out

Also uttered upon comparing the inanity
To what could have been
Whenever his opponent tweeted up

There are those who can manipulate a profit
Even when all the buyers have gone home

There are others who run themselves florid
Organizing goods to keep them in common

I look out the upstairs window
At the cardinals fighting over mating rights
To my backyard

Wishing I could tell both crews what I think of them
Face to face

Heavyhearted

Photo credit: Paul W. Gillespie, Capital Gazette

Fitness centers are closed and they
Drive through windows grabbing local
Takeout each day like it contains
Their full patriotic duty

will i recognize anyone
after?

Crane Cam Therapy

Unheard

Soothed by repetitive
Trilling call of Sandhills
Over Crane Cam live feed

We were supposed to be there in person
At sundown when they lifted from the corn fields
Thousands swirling seeking shelter below

Congregating to the river safe
In their numbers

Remember sharing that instinct of

Social creatures?

How I Am Feeling

While Italians Sing Arias From Balconies

*
Snowdrops are poking through unraked clumps
If I am feeling ambitious
I could clear room for them
My husband points out suggestively

How am I feeling?

He gauges his symptoms
By my general state of being
Unsure if he is bugged by the common
Or something more exotic
Like my gateway drink

Which okay sure, it resembles urine
But the flavor was milder than the crude ones
Tried and rejected as a teen
It suited my craving
To be un-Midwestern-like

My husband alters our nighttime routine
Pressing soft lips squarely
To the center of my forehead
Putting social distance between us

**
My kitchen calendar
Is a series of squares
Events crossed out
On the inside

***
My sister quarantines our parents
Still, they slip through the church’s side door
“We sat in the first pew,” they promise
“We left before greeting anyone.”

When he was young, Dad trained his lungs to run
Pushing asthma ‘round the track ‘til it collapsed
“He has three of the risks,” Mom lists matter-of-factly
“Don’t forget old,” Dad chimes in trying to lift me

My sister’s business trips are canceled
My niece’s freshman year is canceled
My nephew’s golf season is canceled
Church is canceled for the foreseeable Easter

****
“I am praying for everyone as hard as I can”
Stressed to those working around me in a craze
“I blame Friday the 13th,” I say randomly to the file cabinet
Everyone takes the hint

*****
The word comes down from on high to count
All the cases of gowns and the gloves on hand
Also, for future reference should the need arise
Are we willing to research a live virus?

“Our Irish client is shut down,” I announce
Into the cubicle maze
“Due to COVID-19?” a disembodied voice asks
“No. St. Patrick’s Day,” I explain

If required to work remotely
I will carry their laptop outside
Sit on the front steps next to the cairn
Sing “This Little Light of Mine”

Fantasizing the less sick will deliver
Chicken noodle soup to the very
Thus staving off habitat collapse
When everything turns into the positive

******
Friday fell on a thirteenth this year
That evening I spotted the first robin of Spring
Those omens cancel each other out
True?

At least I got a poem out of it