I went through a frustrating plethora of freelance writing assignments during this period, with various levels of success and exacerbation — success in this case defined simply as not prompting murderous feelings of bitter resentment.
Read Moreall the king’s horses
and all the king’s men
are glad
Near us, butterflies so firmly
mated they fly together
Gulls squawk their alarm
as we invade their beach.
At our feet lies the ocean,
thousands of miles wide
I reach out into emptiness,
feel an aura of unrest,
hear cries in many tongues,
some worse than others.
And though I’ve crossed the start line,
failed to scale hurdles, between,
it’s not what you think.
I let hope take the relay to the finish line.
She blames herself for the battles;
I blame myself for the war.
A silent night in the desert,
we meet where the four states patch together
At last the summer months gained friction and the calculations dimmed away beneath the long stretch of daylight.
Read MoreIN A CROWDED refugee camp in Bethlehem, Echlas chain-smokes her way through a pack of cigarettes recently purchased by her 9-year-old neighbor. Small for his age, and always smiling, he drops by often to ask whether she needs anything from one of the small shops in the camp.
Read MoreBreak the falsity of self
into its bony fragments
What will you endure, each moment, each morning when
the burden begins again? (Repetition may be the suffering.)
In the August sun
in a window
a vase
without water
