It is time to slow down, For reflection, For looking more deeply, And long. The facts, the data, What have they borne? Not knowledge, not wisdom, Then what? Metropolis has lost its luster, Farms, factories in fields. Our highways and byways Are broken and worn, Schools shine no Path to the morrow. Work yields no products But capital hocus, And millions are swept to the side. It’s time to slow down Let’s ask what we need. It’s clear, let’s open our eyes. Food for the hungry, H

Waters rise, drowning the square St. Mark’s afloat, a vessel in danger of floundering Its clock ringing out a call of distress Yet, still, a mundane fact of life Simply marking time Grandeur muted by futility Holiness sucked dry by fear as the square is inundated The majestic lion, a cat not fond of a soggy swim Around what was the teeming square Tables and chairs are stacked inside Robbed of conversation and laughter Politics and romance Floating fowl now rule Where once dov

how many ways can you draw a woman / before she dulls / to linework and smudge / and the murky liquid / in the tub / grays / tipsy white folks tell you / you should have fear / khaf / miedo / when you walk down your own street / and a catcall is justification / for mass incarceration / and for junking the princess in the closet / in an acid bubble bath / riddle me this: how many times can you call a woman crazy / before she breaks the / cookie-cutters / it’s spring / the ko

Third Place Winner of the "Vultures & Doves: Social Issues of Our Time" Poetry Competition. I was up the first school day. And my son never sets alarms. But when I knock, he’s awake. He drinks a coke and leaves with a bag Of new supplies and hope. What does he hope for? Good grades? To stay awake in class? A girl to smile at him? I don’t know. On my Facebook there is a question, “Are you afraid to go to Walmart?” No, not that. But I still think of them. Chicago. El Paso. Dayt

Second Place Winner of the "Vultures & Doves: Social Issues of Our Time" Poetry Competition. "Korean Survivors of the Japanese 'Comfort Women' System" is an erasure poem born out of the abstract of the essay, “Korean Survivors of the Japanese “Comfort Women” System: Understanding the Lifelong Consequences of Early Life Trauma” by Jee Hoon Park, KyongWeon Lee, Michelle D. Hand, Keith A. Anderson & Tess E. Schleitwiler for the Journal of Gerontological Social Work. Prior to and

First Place Winner of the "Vultures & Doves: Social Issues of Our Time" Poetry Competition. for a while now, each time I fall into the hole of unreality I awaken raw & frigid—a needle in the murk—in the sandy palm of the earth, in a territory eaten by grief. I catch a shot tearing through the reticence of the bundling fog & the sound of a body becomes a branch breaking off a tree. & a gravestone emerges, a thread loosening itself. I plummet before it, thick, fingers unearthin