susu's bakery

quiet french melodies swirled
among frostings, batters, and doughs
prepping in the cafe kitchen of my
three-days a week employer in the
sleepy self-important college town

was i filled with ennui?
or content to sweep floors
and ride home with a grin

key lime pie - an elegy

soggy friday morning mass
lenten prayers and somber
singing lifting edges of gloom
stepping over railroad tracks
space a moment, steam rising
glance askew to lines of text
the morning across the sea
the mourning of peaceful
praying people on their island home

"ms. b--," they asked, "could we just play music today?"
"ms. b--, " they added, "would you play with us?"

afterward i let tears drop from green limes
the cost of therapy only $3.49 this time
exhaling tenderness and sorrow
slow squeezing of each half by half
opening, an unexpected sigh--
yolk, butter, salt, patience,
beloved preparation to be
together, three, at the familiar table
not a word of the mourning,
of the morning, we all understood;
I looked and looked
and stayed quiet; I knew it would
only be this once, and no more

abecedariusly yours

alone together
before you left
considering the potential
direction of syllables
even the vowels
followed your
gaze
hovering
intimately
just above my shoulder
knocking gently against the
lobe of my left ear

maybe this isn't a
natural end but an
opening
precision laced with a
question but this time no
real answer satisfies

substitutions of our bodies
take more than they give

underneath did you find a
velvet crushed heart?
would you understand it? an
x-ray won't tell
you what you're not feeling
zip me up, dear, before you go.