The Apple
Anointed apple, conceal
in the kitchen’s questioning twilight,
your soulful burden.
Knee-deep in blushing shadows,
this woman shares
your sweet vinegar sorrow.
She ponders, despairing
the world’s fresh tragedies;
is the paring of an apple in a single peel
a triumph, potentially immortal?
Long green spiral, faith of orchards-
it is cliché to call it snake-like,
though accurate, this fruit shedding
shame of its resemblance.
The apple peel is neither snake nor ribbon,
but an ancient river of Eden
where Eve’s life was set adrift.
Golden Delicious, 2015
(from Works on Paper: The 365 Series)
12" x 12", acrylic
Night Burns Bright as We Sleep 
Fireflies pattern flannel dusk into summer:
their fluorescent buzz ignites flame embroidery.
Old trees wheeze their dying secrets: each brittle limb
snaps a matchstick exclamation.
Blind Orion pursues Pleiades’ seven star sisters:
his Braille sword sparks white-hot mythology.
Night Sky in the Country, 2015
(from Works on Paper: The 365 Series)
12" x 12", water color
Eve Eats a Mango
Mango, the shape of seduction, teases.
Shameless. Curvaceous mango,
its rose-brushed cheek, the heft of her breast.
Under supple golden skin
a celebration of sunrise moves the flesh
to dance to sway to writhe,
and reveals the longing of mangoes
to live to ripen to die in their native sun.
Sweet juice of today, tomorrow be damned.
To taste eternal summer, to slide over pulp
with tongue and mouth, suck psalms from the stone,
pull strings through a sieve of teeth.
Nectar pools in her hand. Musk trickles
down her wrist. Eve’s honeyed mouth seeks
another tongue to lick the corner of her lip.
Pomegranate Moon, 2015
(from Works on Paper: The 365 Series
12" x 12", acrylic
