It didn’t snow for Halloween
The Pocahantas Halloween that skater’s winter
Hundreds of little white girls dressed as Indians
Too cold to go door to door
They raided the stores in the biggest mall in Anchorage
Moms wearing ranch mink
Carrying their daughters’ pink coats lined with rabbit fur
Those trap lines are so romantic
Sulking teenage clerks handing out cheap waxpaper twists [...]
Originally published in an LLL ALL
Plump and warm
Soft and buttery
Cut in the shape of two little hands,
Take a nibble
Get a giggle
Sugar cookies.
Originally published in LLL of New Mexico’s Enchantment
He doesn’t have my Cary Grant chin
He doesn’t have my eyes
Or my nose
Or my square jaw.
Originally published in LLL of Ohio’s The Circle, 1989
Sway and sway
Two step, dip
Sway and sway again;
Cheek to cheek
Every night
The perfect partner on the floor.
Originally published in LLL of New Mexico’s Enchantment
Two loaves of bread in each batch.
One loaf fresh, hot, and buttered for us
The other into the freezer to wait.
Originally published in LLL of New Mexico’s Enchantment
I never got to meet you,
Little, tiny almost-child;
You slipped away
To the stars and the moon
And didn’t come back
To tell Mommy how beautiful they were.
I had always been saying,
“I have one son and a baby.”
You were still so little
Even though you could stand
And yell and play.
Originally published in LLL of New Mexico’s Enchantment, Winter 1986
I didn’t know about him for a long time.
It had been an afternoon–an ordinary summer afternoon,
August 9, 1963;
I was home in the kitchen,
My mom was chopping something.
Patrick Kennedy had just died,
The President’s little baby boy,
I told my mother it made me sad.
She stopped.
Originally published in LLL of Texas’s Ten-Gallon Tidings, Fall 1993
I stared out
Past the drapes
Past the tears
Past a layette I guess
I won’t be needing
To the mailbox.
All three boys were in our tree
When suddenly
At some command
They reappeared
In the front yard hammock.
