Human Influence

Summer 2020 in Haikus

I’m just trying to help, he says when he suggests I be more like him. I lift up my sleeve to show him the scars he left me when I first tasted my own tail in the backseat of the Volkswagen and he could only muster up enough words to complain about the traffic.

“Keep your eye on the road”, retorts my mother sitting still in the passenger seat. Maybe to both of us. This is what treading forward feels…

Once You Stop Smoking Cigarettes, The Stench Still Lingers

The cigarette stench of this city latches on to me relentlessly. To my hair, my clothes, my soul. It engulfs me everywhere I go. It becomes impossible to breathe. The vision of my future once so clear becomes muddled and fuzzy by the smoke –  then suddenly I realize I’m looking at dark space.

I stand on the crowded u-bahn, a frenzy of thick dark hair, layers of sweaters and scarves, at times…

Premont, Texas

Big Bend National Park