Abandoned petals

I thought: Empty

when I saw the red petals
so abruptly
abandon the stem of tulip
you picked
off the side of the highway

They fell simultaneously
like a curtain,
a magic trick,
the unveiling of
a passionate belly dancer’s red veil.

Like you looked when you
let your towel
fall to the floor
at the sight of me
lying looking
with that face
I give when I feel ignored.


Thanks 3WW for the prompt: Empty, Highway, Ignored

Featured on Poets Who Blog

Poets Who Blog has featured my poem, Hold my bones, for Day 28 of National Poetry Month.

Check out their site to find lots of great poets online.

Thanks again to Poets Who Blog for allowing me to share my work!

Thanks Epiphany: Amour Habito Intus Vos!

I want to send a thank you to Cynthia for selecting me to be the guest poet of the week on her blog, Epiphany: Amour Habito Intus Vos.

She featured my poem stranger equals.

Pre-heat the oven

Yummy
cupcake
candy
and sprinkle
me pretty
but not too plump

Bumpy
cookie
give me
dark chocolate
kisses
smeared
and gooey

Goody
fruits
so sweet
make me
loopy cherries
squeeze
apple crumbs
in my palms

Shake,
mix and
pour,
throw away
the instructions
with the box
and bake me
tastefully

Dragon secrets

Dangerous flirt,
you read every word
Before they were given
the chance to
be conceived

Sweet poser,
you wore
the costume
Of a royal
lover
green,
gold,
and purple

Wishful knight,
I remember
your noble
fairytale-like
walks
across
the floor
in the dark

Dear slayer,
I was
a dragon
wearing a fallen
princess’ costume,
but tonight I write
by candle light
unmasked
sticking my tongue
out of my fire
breathing
mouth

covered in butterflies

You are the black butterflies that
transform me,
beautify me,
infatuate me
and softly consume all of me.

Hold my bones

Doctor me-
hold my bones

Carry them
in your pocket
for just a few minutes
before you put me under
the light of your microscope

Hold tight and twist
insert one
through the space in
between your ribs
and then diagnose
prescribe a dose

Think of my stare
and my running eyes
as I am put deep under-
where I can feel pain no longer

My words melted,
dripped from all
my crevices and drained
through the holes in your head

Check-up
on me
doctor,

but don’t forget
to hold my bones

Thanks Poets Who Blog!

I am very excited to be one of this weeks featured poets on Poets Who Blog!

Check out the 3 other great poets that I had the pleasure of being featured with.

neon eyes, starless skies

Your room was a space ship
And you were my abductor
The bright lights
made my dark eyes neon

The empty communication,
lit lost translations
in this constellation of souls

Tonight my dark sky is still starless,
And you can still imagine me
an alien-

UFO, you shot out of the sky
My voice left words behind
disintegrating, my fragments returning home

C&J Wedding Haikus

Pink Brut
Tuxedos on floating gazebos
Red and orange fruit

Champagne rain
Purple rose pedals
Banana fondue

Saxaphone
Bustles and bows
Love song

Letters to you

I love letters
but I really hate this one
passionately engraved
into rough paper

With closed eyes
I trace the characters and symbols
several times over
dashing, dotting, and crossing
before sealing it in an envelope
labeled: fragile

I was right
to write it out of me
slowly and carefully
translating the memory
of your face
as you tried
to sound me out

Freckled wings

In the dark you looked
on at the ocean
resembling
a butterfly
with freckled ivory skin
and speckled dreams in your eyes

for H

Capsules of gemstones

A poet laughs in the dark
the bliss of pen to paper

Lines lie under the mattress
in a golden notebook,
a golden time capsule,
a prose vault holding
ruby emotions,
amber conversations,
and emerald green scenery
to entertain a curious imagination
with a love for genuine gemstones

A poet laughs in the dark
the bliss of reading old poems

chocolate bubbles

My heart makes me a foreigner.
Without language,
I bathe in a tub of strawberry cream
blowing dark chocolate bubbles off my palms
dreaming my reality moons away

Carnivals and jungles

There are things about my mind
you will never understand
at times it is a carnival by the bay
with wild peacocks and psychic readings,
midgets and mimes.

Or how I have different eyes
One that instinctively captures
colored curves
in black and white rooms
and another that sees
clarity in layers of spilled paint---

After we wake
I still remain in places
I had been in my dreams
and wonder where I could go
on earth to find them one day

Over coffee I stare at the steam
imagining myself sliding
down a fluffy slide
after climbing a cloudy staircase

We look at each other with confusion
and I think myself a purple striped tiger
in an imitation jungle


Thanks for the Monday Mural prompt POEFUSION

Sunday Haikus to you

Cloudy day
A black kitten cries
by gray paint

I fear
My own darkness
my heart

what if the
moments question
the what ifs

I never knew
my own vulnerability
in the ocean

comfort fruits

You love avocados---to pierce its dark bumpy skin and slice into its green sliminess
They don’t grow in this hemisphere…at least I thought they never did
I notice many foriegn fruits lately
and your pink lips that look like papayas in the kitchen
when you stir and shake the pots and pans
over the gasoline stove that clicks and makes me dance
under these white ceilings comforting as a clear sky
dreaming of canopy beds in brick houses


Thanks POEFUSION for the prompt!

Serene beaches

This bed is an island
and in a minute it may be
a cloud or a hammock in a bamboo room

My dark hours are serene now
When I close my eyes
I bathe in butterfly wings and bay water

Incense burns on the window sill
spilling smoke across my chanting lips
killing the vowels before they can become
man eating sentences

Peacefully I sleep on my beach
where I once walked endlessly
through fields of dead cattails

The freeze

As much as I hate the cold-
I love the freeze,
under a frosty blanket with a warmer anticipation

Savoring moments of numbness and fear-
The bitter cold
alters the psychological
and brings you unnervingly
close to the physical

Smokey illusions-
Through white breaths
there are flashing lights of memories

Golden cages

Eyes lined with glittery shadow confessed her sadness in my kitchen over a glass of Johnny Walker Black. Just a few months ago she spent years living in an Egyptian condo.

He was an older white man who needed a translator, caretaker, and occasional lover.
The American businessman rescued her from a common life at the ripe age of eighteen.
She occasionally walked among her people, flashing diamonds and designer clothing.

"I was like a bird in a beautiful golden cage. Fifteen years...I had everything, but money doesn't buy you happiness.”

Her voice cracked and she took a sip of Jack.

“I would give it all back and live as a poor Egyptian," she cried. "I wasted my young years drinking by myself in the fanciest of hotels in France, Italy, Spain..”

Later that week, closing her eyes on Rockaway beach she felt the souls of pharaohs and dark rivers in her heart. In her sand there are leopard fish skeletons with rose petal hearts.

Her pink lips part under her sparkling eyes. “Here I am in New York City," she thought. "I have nothing. I am free..”

Metamorphosis

Butterflies breathe sleepless nights
into my bedroom:
Reverse-metamorphosis
bred a field of caterpillar pens
and now it’s a writing orgy.

Dream flies

escape from my stomach,
wrap themselves

in sheets of composition paper

in search of new cocoons

National Poetry Month: NaPoWriMo

For National Poetry Month, I am on a poem marathon in participation with readwritepoem's NaPoWriMo.

Also, check out my other blog, Love to be Inspired, highighting some of my favorite poets this month.


Check back here for an updated list for April.

4/1 Metamorphosis
4/2 Golden cages
4/3 The freeze
4/4 Serene beaches
4/5 comfort fruits
4/6 Sunday haikus to you
4/7 Carnivals and jungles
4/8 Chocolate bubbles
4/9 Capsules of gemstones
4/10 Freckled wings
4/11 Letters to you
4/13 C&J wedding haikus
4/14 neon eyes, starless skies
4/15 Hold my bones
4/16 Covered in Butterflies
4/17 Dragon secrets