Poems
Moon Cotton
got lost temporarily/
again/
howled over yonder/
following an invisible compass/
Ive lived here awhile & still get lost in these woods"/
She wears tough skin/
a contagious laugh/
a well worn smile/
Windswept tears mix with dog slobber/
in the back of her pick up truck/
sunset again/
new lands/
familiar country roads/
back to the community of/
once strangers/
now friends huddled around stories and roasted chestnuts/
knowledge/
we learn from water and gravity's perspective/;.
No purity/
Stardust & micro plastix inhabit water droplets;/
can be home in multiple places;/
water/
shapes structures/
shapes/ us, swales shape/
waters wave lengths bringing Contour /
lines ah-life/
Long term efficiency curves with nonlinear progress/
hundred year plans nourishing future kin/
of all species stacking/ succession and multiple functions/
we practice deepening our sense of wonder &awe/
at the possibility lions mane inoculates trees/
ionizes/
channels electricity to strike/
create death to grow/ neural networks/
earth work/
linked through unseen paths /.
got lost temporarily/
again/
howled over yonder/
following an invisible compass/
Ive lived here awhile & still get lost in these woods"/
She wears tough skin/
a contagious laugh/
a well worn smile/
Windswept tears mix with dog slobber/
in the back of her pick up truck/
sunset again/
new lands/
familiar country roads/
back to the community of/
once strangers/
now friends huddled around stories and roasted chestnuts/
knowledge/
we learn from water and gravity's perspective/;.
No purity/
Stardust & micro plastix inhabit water droplets;/
can be home in multiple places;/
water/
shapes structures/
shapes/ us, swales shape/
waters wave lengths bringing Contour /
lines ah-life/
Long term efficiency curves with nonlinear progress/
hundred year plans nourishing future kin/
of all species stacking/ succession and multiple functions/
we practice deepening our sense of wonder &awe/
at the possibility lions mane inoculates trees/
ionizes/
channels electricity to strike/
create death to grow/ neural networks/
earth work/
linked through unseen paths /.
Catcus
i bloom from a cycle of strong women
Albotrobajador viejx’s
Spiked pillars wearing green wrinkles
tall
in the desert sun
Hardships and dreams keep them
growing
i love my great grandmother, grandmother & mom
They've taught me how to hug a cactus
That I can breathe into the sensation some call sharp
Embrace needles,
feel skin cells
pop
forming tattoos
trauma’s & lived experiences bleed into ink
Kin into me
Creating symbols i didn’t understand at first
Frustrated
taking years of hard learning
just like them i am
soft as fabric compared to them
Clothes tattered from each hug
Rip open another layer
As one wound opens another closes
As one wound closes another opens i get cut each time
There’s no way around this
We laugh
“Mama’s didn’t raise no bitch”
Seek to dissolve pain
i
wear these tears as badges of honor
Reminds of where i’m from
part of who
i am
Te amo bisabuela, abuela y mama
Te vengo un linaje de mujeres fuertes
They’ve raised me to grow different from them
Each one shaped me unlike like them
i am them
Have cried with them
To them
Because of them
We bloom all the same
Nurtured the best as a cactus can while
i
try to nurture them
To love a cactus is to understand
Water may be love
isn’t always absorbed in sand
Slips through tiny pieces of mountains broken down
i
Love you
Forgive you
Apologize
for trying to be like you
different than you
frustrated
i understand now how
to hug a cactus
i bloom from a cycle of strong women
Albotrobajador viejx’s
Spiked pillars wearing green wrinkles
tall
in the desert sun
Hardships and dreams keep them
growing
i love my great grandmother, grandmother & mom
They've taught me how to hug a cactus
That I can breathe into the sensation some call sharp
Embrace needles,
feel skin cells
pop
forming tattoos
trauma’s & lived experiences bleed into ink
Kin into me
Creating symbols i didn’t understand at first
Frustrated
taking years of hard learning
just like them i am
soft as fabric compared to them
Clothes tattered from each hug
Rip open another layer
As one wound opens another closes
As one wound closes another opens i get cut each time
There’s no way around this
We laugh
“Mama’s didn’t raise no bitch”
Seek to dissolve pain
i
wear these tears as badges of honor
Reminds of where i’m from
part of who
i am
Te amo bisabuela, abuela y mama
Te vengo un linaje de mujeres fuertes
They’ve raised me to grow different from them
Each one shaped me unlike like them
i am them
Have cried with them
To them
Because of them
We bloom all the same
Nurtured the best as a cactus can while
i
try to nurture them
To love a cactus is to understand
Water may be love
isn’t always absorbed in sand
Slips through tiny pieces of mountains broken down
i
Love you
Forgive you
Apologize
for trying to be like you
different than you
frustrated
i understand now how
to hug a cactus