Villanelle Origin Story
for Cameron
A wooden sword and candy red hair,
whirling, twirling lioness on a summer’s day,
of harm and harming, there is no care.
Grown men have fled the field and stare
“I fear I’d hurt her if I tried to play!”
A wooden sword and candy red hair,
A goblin grin, her nostrils flare.
“Beware the new girl” I hear them say,
“Of harm and harming, there is no care.”
But still they all are gathered there,
green grass, blue sky, it’s time to play.
A wooden sword and candy red hair,
the clacking wood, the humid air,
the lioness’ and goblin’s prey.
Of harm or harming, there is no care.
The seeds of friendship planted there
a tree that grows from simple play.
A wooden sword and candy red hair
of harm and harming, there is no care.
World Trade the Past for a Nickel
September 13, 2021, 9/11 Memorial and Oculus Transportation Hub, NY, NY
Oculus, show me what I seek.
For me it was never about the heights
Real New Yorkers(™) seldom look up
I was too young to be anything but real
not even myself, who looks up now.
But tunnels are an endless maze
in recollection, books, wasabi, vampires,
a pinky nail long enough to give the lie.
Winter and spring, it was the garden of my teenaged…
aged, if youth is a country lost
you can still visit the cavity, probe the hole and hope
you find more wisdom than stitches.