#rootsandwings

Do the deer know it’s the Fourth

of July? I saw two babies nosing

through the underbrush just as

as many millions fired up the grill

and behind a teary rain flowing

down the cheeks of bullet proof

glass in DC an indecent bully held

our pupils hostage. Do the kids

in cages know it’s the happy birth

day of Lady Liberty? The Home

of the Brave and the land of

the Free? Are only these lines

backwards or is the whole damn ship

of state sinking into the quicksand

of the small, small man who’s commandeered the tanks to news-

feed his monstrous bitter deeds.

Tiny Love

Tiny as the ruby

teeth of pomegranates, 

beauty that bites

when least expected

Little slip of a love

making no sense of fall 

leafing through last season’s threads

Takes you by the bit

Tiny like grit, holy Braille 

blinding your tongue 

Tiny as wet letters of rain

late into the night, setting type 

until dawn, hot off the presses

rose disrobed

Itty bitty atomic love

quick as lightning 

to render dumb

Strikes you, the bait

a crumb of sugar,

infinitesimal,

love lies in wait, patiently ...

Why does April make fools of us?

Is it the giddy rush of color across

the plush green cheeks of hills

marching’s past, it’s April! The thrill

a lady in waiting to become

a summer lover languid in robe

of blue twilight that takes forever

to come off. (G)listen, to April, trill

of that ephemeral whistle

between the eardrums, the bird

that bears every season but wears

a magical plumage on the page

As swans of calla lilies sing in spring

Poets fed on cruelty spread their wings

Sophia Naz

I interrupt

an Orange Ogre’s egregious excess

of awful untruths

To affirm

that there is only one

National Emergency

and his name

is Donald Trump.