FGM

Because nothing you can say

Could ever justify cutting away

Pieces of someone

Sewing them up shut

You cannot silence us

That way

The women are rising

Watch out New day

April 6th poem (unfinished)

She looked old for her age
She beat off boys and men with a stick
No silly lovesick girl
She picked a boy with good grades
She knew to take the pill

But Prudence din't save her
Her beauty Providence mocked
She found herself with child
99% not protection enough...

For Niko (April 5th poem)

So little but so strong

You throw your brother into

The air and laugh

You are silent

When others are crying

You are a rock

A tiny tiny shiny rock

And I want to grab you

Shake you make you

Promise me not to be

So strong so strong

Chocolate cherub child

Giggly gorgeous girl

You don’t have to know

Everything womanchild

Sometimes you can be wrong

Don’t grow up to take care

Don’t hide your feelings

Share

Don’t make yourself small

For anyone

Don’t be the rock

Others rely upon

You don’t have to be strong

And you don’t have to float and fly and flit

Away, you can stay

Present be here

Be fully YOU in every way

For Malik (April 4, 2013)

I wrote this poem for you

Because once I saw you crying

Because I never could bare it

Your loss

Your loneliness your

being sick or sad or sorry

I don’t know if this poem can heal you

But I will it to:

I let loose these words

Like hot hands

Hovering over your wounds

I cradle you with imagined arms

Singing away your tears

The sky is dimmer

When you do not shine

The sound of silence

Misses your happy laugh

Jiggle juggle joy

Little lovely boy

Come back come back

Climb into my lap

Promise me be happy

Rise up shine and shimmer

The world is waiting

The future holds its breath

Its you we need

On you we depend

Say The Dead (April 3rd Poem)

The moment of death

Unlike any other

The moment the breath

We expire

Don’t leave us

Everybody living begs

But the dead have their

Dying to do

Don’t always listen

Got places to go

Hush now

The wind is blowing back

Messages and memories

Listen: souls long gone

Whisper don’t weep for us

You have all died more than once

Woosh

Walk away

Exhale once loudly

Admire the way they go

Its Possible I was....(April 2nd poem)

Its possible I was born a poet

The most painful experience

Of my mother’s life:

A blue and red package of rage

Forced into life too soon

Chased by an overeager

Doctor’s needle

Evacuated by chemicals

Wrenched out green with screaming

By metal forceps

Its possible I had no choice

But to become a poet

The third happy accident

Of my parents short marriage

Born with the gift of sight

The unwilling companion of spirits

Things that go bump in the night

An artist at a young age

With inquiring eyes

Too many whys

Too many miles

And not enough time

What else really

Could I have become?

The Miracle Is....(April 1st poem)

The miracle is...
That we stay alive
As long as we do
In a world full
Of sharp and heavy things
Cliffs and running streams
Machines that are deaf
And blind to our screams