June 14, 2021 (part 2)

made a friend with a cicada
helped it get back on its feet
it became so excited it crawled up my arm
and stared at me while i worked on a digital zine.

made a friend with a cat
(not the cat our host expected to be needy and affectionate)
and she decided my lap was not where the laptop should go,
the lap was where she should be for the rest of the afternoon.

made a friend with another cicada
as it flew full force at my head
and landed on my bright orange hood
and refused to leave until my spouse gently pulled it off

tried to make friends with every lizard who crossed my path
but they clearly had important places to be
so i tried to let them go on their way
(but still i watched them with glaring curiosity)

June 14, 2021

even more tired
this morning
than yesterday.

when’s the last time we stayed up
till past 2am?
i literally cannot remember.

we are the early-risers,
the morning people,
the dawn folk,

and yet

i come from the theater,
my job, my career, all my peers
are night owls

and as long as there are wide spaces between,
or at least an opportunity to nap
the following day,

it’s invigorating to feed off their energy
(and their Old Bay fries.)

June 13, 2021 (part 2)

our dog
is a beach dog
but not an ocean dog

although

she treats the sand like snow,
rolling around in it,
licking it up and eating it,
rolling around some more in order to get out of her eyes that sand from the first roll

and even though we had to pull her away from that joy,
and even though we had to rinse out her eyes so they would stop swelling,
it was worth it to see her jump around like a puppy
(and to see folks’ faces erupt in surprise when we tell them
“this dog is thirteen years old [today]!”)

~~~

i didn’t realize
love languages show up
so early

but damn if that
less-than-two-year-old
didn’t hand off his juice,
and blanket,
and bag of apples
the minute he decided
he liked us.

~~~

arriving home
far too late
making eye contact
with a young buck
as he munches on leaves,
hardly concerned we’re twenty feet away
(as my dog remains frozen with the decision
of whether to chase this creature
as friend or prey)

June 12, 2021 (part 2)

travels usually take
hours upon hours upon hours
(our go-to vacation spots/chill with family spots
have historically taken 8-ish hours.)
(tack onto that traffic/stops with dog/
my tiny bladder/
mostly traveling in seasons bombarded with snow;
our bodies are prepared for travel
to be the only event in a day.)

so when a “vacation trip” takes four/four and a half hours
(five-fifteen with stops/the traffic that inevitably erupts around nyc)
there is an excess of energy when we arrive at our destination.

but the question for tonight was:
“is that enough to meet one young child and two toddlers?”

and the answer was,
unequivocally
“yes!”

[although the dog with bows through her fur
may profess otherwise]

June 12, 2021

looking forward
to being in Maryland
for many reasons
(one of which is being reunited with my
BROTHER)
(another is being able to hold
My Son
once more),
but also because
it means
i’ll have some travel
to poem about
to put into this
(originally conceived of)
travel
poetry
blog.

June 11, 2021

sometimes you have to go back
and re-re-read your older poetry
(yes, the poetry you so recently re-read
in order to post it to the blog)
because you had such a concept[control]
of the language
the alliterations acting as appetizers
on an empty stomach/tongue,
and as you read
(and think “why the fuck can’t i find that
language
this time ‘round?”)
maybe tell yourself
maybe remind yourself
you probably thought that same thing back in early May
late April
and perhaps,
in a month or two or three
(or even a year or two or three)
you’ll look back on this
early
mid
June
and think to yourself
“my goodness,
i was so good at poetry
back then.”

June 10, 2021

i feel as though
i have very little to say lately
going through and posting poems
from this experiment of poetry journaling
poetry-every-day-ing
poetry for poetry’s sake
-ing
and i used to have so much to say
even if it was just writing about writing about writing about writing
the lilt of the poems
lifting off the screen
i could feel the tempo in my mouth
but lately
i’ve been
ever
so
slightly
more
stagnant.

June 9, 2021

a sudden
desolate
feeling

(from where?)
(is it fear?)
(is it unknowns?)
(is it this music?)
(is it simply brain chemistry
once again?)

~~~

i have scores
of unfinished poems
on complex concepts:
identity,
isms (race and otherwise),
individuality,
depression,
misgendering,
gender euphoria,
magical summers,
myself,
others,
and on and on and on
and i hope to some day share them;
feel confident enough in what i’ve already written,
come to some sort of conclusion that helps the poem
stay
important,
feel like the poem expresses what a
Big Concept
should truly express,
but for now i keep slugging along
writing little poems
about my morning
and hoping that
some day
i’ll feel awake enough
to really sift through
those big poems
again.

~~~

i have a secret to tell you
(shh, don’t tell anyone else)
i usually write more than one poem
a morning,
but i’ll save the poem that doesn’t have the right
‘feel’
for that morning
for a different morning,
a morning when i can’t express myself in poetry
(or a morning where i’ve expressed myself too well,
and the poems feel too personal
to share on this here poetry blog),
and i find a secondary poem
from a day long since passed (past?)
and i appropriate it
for that day
to have something to share
to have something to post
(and,
as an overly-honest person,
i wonder if i should make note of these,
write at the bottom
“this poem originally conceived of on ________ date”
but i haven’t yet,
because this poem a day thing is for me,
and posting for others is secondary,
so if i want a record of when poems were written
and when poems were placed elsewhere,
i’d write it down within my drafts
(i already do)
but maybe,
as this blog is a solid gathering
of poems i am ok with being public,
i could indicate this,
also for my own records
just in a different spot…?
maybe?)

June 8, 2021

i’ve spent the last few days [weeks]
posting these poems
up on my poetry blog
and i feel far more accomplished
and yet
there’s still a feeling
of
i get closer to my actual base thoughts
when i’m not worrying about which poems to post
[though i’d been posting the poems from days gone by]
so will i get back to that magic
of day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day 5, day 6…
will i need to set a schedule for posting? every three days? every week?
and do i really need to contemplate this out loud
into words
into my poems
into my way of conceptualizing/processing/thinking/feeling/knowing
in order to make them
more
real?