Monthly Archives: July 2019
Go Inside This Week’s Issue of U.S. 1: July 24, 2019
The following stories were originally published in the July 24, 2019, issue of U.S. 1 Newspaper.
Bella’s Mother Baking for the Church’s Bake Sale
Every year Bella’s mother baked
for their church’s bake sale
two cookbooks opened to grease-stained pages
Flour everywhere, electric mixer, mixing bowls,
rolling pins, measuring cups, spoons
baking racks, sheets
divine smells of cinnamon, nutmeg,...
The Awakening
I have listened to the spring
heard its repertoire of arias
echoed by the cardinals
felt its breath as a warm breeze
so gentle to the touch
observed its verdant grasses
mowed in linear patterns
its...
Working on My Tan
My old skin
Could use a little color
Pale from Winter’s harshness
And its bitter blasts
The flora’s beauty
The trees majestic spread
And the birds
Cardinals, Blue Jays, Finches, now yellow
Luxurious warmth
The Summer returns
Like an...
Clearing
it is evening after storm
— the one titled “Nor’easter Four”—
I drive with excessive caution
between fields devoted to farms
passing, first, the owl-wood
then harriers’ hunting grounds
on my left, hefty cows graze
as...
The Poetry Crimes
She walked in,
“what is all this?”
she asked
She put on her glasses,
examining the evidence.
She recognized my finger prints on it.
My words spilled out on the table,
Labeled like a crime scene
on...
Carrying Water to My Indian Neighbor
For Shefali, an Eighth Grader
“It takes a village to raise a child.”
We sat on your couch
and I read your poem
all three pages.
I was struck by the lyricism
of your lines
and...
The Immigrant
A civil war rages, a degree awaits, an uncle calls or greener shores beckons,
You fly, walk, navigate immigration, sneak over the border,
You don’t know it yet but you are...
Love Song — Push Play
If you let me get close enough to kiss your
eyes, your face, lose my nose without a
trace into your heavenly scents,
I will then curl around your chest, and
listen for...
Will You Hold My Hand?
(To Mom & Dad)
As my family sits by
my bedside weeping,
will you come and be
with me.
As you once held
my hand when we
crossed the street.
As you once put me
on your shoulders...