Untitled 6

I don't do that,
couldn't, no, could not do that
what would they do to me. they to me.
those kids-children.

have you always been this precious
is this your shining pedestal
is this what is reserved for feminists
I'm not sure you've thought of all your options

options-those kids sure as hell don't have
can those kids even become
become feminist without

just different options
precious options.

This isn't what I felt before

This isn't what I felt before
miles of me versus you verse us
verses worthy of waiting
are these verses worthy of waiting.

4th Bingham

These walls are my womb
sloped ceilings of safety
safety and security passed from the earliest scholars
sloped ceilings and awkward walls
protecting me from you
enclosing my thoughts, drowning yours
blocking your love, your pain, your joy and passion
but fueling, burning, celebrating my love, pain, joy and
passion heard only inside my room.
and this is how it has been.
only ventures to observe the gargoyles, the ground, the urban Green
only these left to haunt you in
This Side of Paradise.

What seemed like the result, but before I knew the result

You left in the loudest silence
without focus, focus without, without ritalin
couldn't you hear this defeat
wasn't it shaking you ever so slightly
making you sick from hunger, sending electric currents through your thighs,
and capturing your breast.
it was the loudest silence.

Cultural Competency on Friday Evening

I want to say that I am
PISSED. Move, BITCH, get out the way.
but you're supposed to be the best.
you believe, you expect, you dream for all
you live your life not just to live your life
so others can live their life, but you want others
to live your life.
and you make that certain, that's why you're shouting
"Move, BITCH, get out the way"
even with clenched jaws, weak, no, meek smiles
and in your strive for perfection you forgot
you don't have perfection
isn't this the result when we forget
because he left in silence and
disgust at my touch.
we forgot, we couldn't have perfection.

Untitled

This place used to be a prison.
the windows set back, only on the outside-
gossip unfurled among radio instructions:
"I've got 19-I'll send one more up. Rooms 403, 404
combine your numbers, deliver your materials."
and all through that foggy eyed, froggy mind, boggy morning
recruits trickled in an examinations began
but 466 remained empty.
and radios continued their crackle
bodies kept emerging from concrete hallways
and long lines proving paperwork with picture identification perpetual
until up the stairs came a face to a body
headed to 466
where the examination began.

A Favorite Poem

This poem was one of the first I ever loved. In honor of anyone in, or veteran of, conflict:

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up your quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

John McCrae, 1915

Poverty Proof

wavering wages
keeping you barely above water
constant warningreminder you're not wading
and all frivolous without forms
questionnaires in clinics
because your hardened exoskeleton isn't urgent for emergency
figuring your EFC on your FAFSA
can't do that without filing and
even if you file, that doesn't mean you can FAFSA
food stamps, family planning, free or
reduced lunch. reduced literacy.
and even with literacy, with literacy for forms for EFC
that's your expected family contribution.
but even with--you need proof
you must wait. that's how you're differentiated.
long lines, long tape
discriminate
and when you get to the beginning
mocking pride to
prove your poverty.
and when you don't have the forms
you never documented your documents
you prove your poverty.

ACT on the GRE

that's what this confidence will bring.
bring it-
Draconian-no, lex talionis-
Draconian is to lex talionis as
astute is to sincere?
astute in reason, sincere in effort(?)-
less confidence. Try again.
scholar-
less pursuits.

For Emily: Servant of America

And the hardest, just might be to never quite be, never quite get enough
But stop-stop it girl-
stop it and start it-
yeah, rock it-rock that soulja boy
rock it out-just how you do
rhythm and soul and do it to it before you
CUT!
damn, can't catch that soulja girl
except, damn, that soulja girl can catch
can catch, can cut, can run with the best.
but it ain't all that cause she is all that.
she knew
she knew that struggle, and she felt that struggle from each one-
Central and a Higher-grounded in reality because she always felt
always felt until all this a^2 + b^2 = c^2 was bumblesass.
so, she might not think she was even, or that might not get enough,
but she did and more
important: her students, got more than they ever would.
at times, the hardest.
damn, that soulja girl.