First published in Brief Wilderness

This poem is orphaned from the swimmer
almost dead in the water, frozen in the Sound,
searching for the creature with many arms
in the deep dank, seeking meaning
in the bottom crawl…

First Published in Broken Plate

Color lush tropical feral fertile
crowded green, stems, stalks
white flowers and blackish ferns,
over the wardrobe threshold

where the torture corsets lived;
leather and steel trap delicate flesh,
buckled and strangled in straightening
harnesses of medical dictation…

First published in Lake

Girls, we called them girls, 
and they really were girls,
screaming and writhing. 

Laboring in cage-like cribs,
strapped down by nurses and nuns,
hatted with wimples and caps.
How I remember…

First published in Courtship of Winds

They came by bus, night-ride from Chicago,
carrying burdens they couldn’t afford.
Sweaty, sleepless, and scared, they straggled 

into a seedy waiting room, eased into purloined chairs
against dirty walls. Me and my fellow first-years
waited for them—nary a licensed doctor in sight.

First appeared in Lake

For some, it takes too much thinking.
You try to gather your courage
and look down the craw of the law.

For some, there’s no choice;
not enough money, not enough food,
no partner, no parents, plenty of poor…

First Appeared in Synkronicitiy

I dread winter this year.
After our summer of virus,
the joys of outdoor gatherings
are smothered by smoke.

Now more than ever
the encroaching dark & thoughts
of boots squelching over mud
threaten my composure.

First Appeared in Synkroniciti

I often wonder–
do clams enjoy the swish
in their embrace of flux and flow,
salt and clear,
reach and spit
and peristaltic pleasure?

First Appeared in Flash Glass

The sharp tack of autumn had not pierced the air
that year she died, as it does here, each year, where I live.
Somehow last week that date went unheeded,

overwhelmed by lassitude or busyness
or random family worries,
a week of helping with the chaotic lives 

First Appeared in The Loop on Vashon Island

The baby screams in the house full
of leftover turkey & stuffing, fries and pies
potatoes mashed by another shrieker & his dad.
Sleep settles into all the warm beds but mine.

Awake as windows rattle
I pen a poem. Stillness embraces
all the others downstairs. Our dogs mumble
in sleep, paws tapping.

First Appeared in Apricity

Safeway roasted chicken ghoulishly dry so unappetizingly displayed
untouched in its black plastic coffin with clear top, bagged salad never opened
withered apples Velveeta cheese a quart of skim some old fries off-brand ketchup
orange juice the cheap kind no pulp all purchased by the nurse’s aide after my
uncle died…

First Appeared in Chained Muse

We are on our way.
Each night we sit together
as the dark lengthens
and the snowy mountains fade
at an earlier hour.I
light candles as he watches.
We cook together, prodding
coaching and ofttimes criticizing
and I see our dailiness, how we
reach over each other
with the comfort and contempt
of the familiar.

First Appeared in Meadow

Some say I have a degree in worry but they are wrong.
It’s a Ph.D. in catastrophe.
That said, all’s OK now and then
with a few forgotten highs and many remembered lows.
I used to like houseplants but now I mostly weed.
I love dahlias but mine tend to wither.
There are water shortages interspersed with deluges.
Oh, and I tend to be contrarian…

First appeared in Synkroniciti

I buy my first brand- new car.
It’s royal blue, and it’s a lemon.
At the very first storm
rain drips onto the dashboard
through the windshield weld.

The men in Service
at the dealership ignore me.
Maybe my large belly
embarrasses them.

First Appeared in Northwest Prime Time

Luscious taste of summer,
ripe peach sunshine
melts through my lips
with each lovely bite, as
Tahoma’s summit glistens white
against the blue August sky.

First Appeared in Writing While Masked

I tried to be grateful for my husband this morning. 
He’s pissed I want the car which I usually cede to him 
because he’s so A.D.D. and I, 
I’m just a little. 
I tried to be grateful because I have him 
and I know my friend Jane has no one, 
she’s alone in this pandemic wilderness. 

First Appeared in Writing While Masked

Yes it happened. 
I know. 
My sister called; 

My crazy cousin
got his Orthodox lackey
to get my aged, tranked uncle
to check the box
for Trump. 

First Appeared in Writing While Masked

We took the kids
when we could
outside to the woods. 

Little moments of awe 
made what we saw
a balance to our daily dread. 

Appeared in Writing While Masked

I dread winter this year. 
After our summer of virus, 
the joys of outdoor gatherings
are smothered by smoke. 

Now more than ever 
the encroaching dark & thoughts
of boots squelching over mud
threaten my composure. 

Appeared in Writing While Masked

If you have a secret

keep it. Choose your

targets like a heat-

seeking missile.

Take out

the perpetrator–

Appeared in Writing While Masked

We sit around the table
pass the Purelle
and wash the children’s’ hands excessively.

We look at our token wolf mask
in its place on the wall and
we howl the family howl