rattling rain another backache to start the day I stand for two-and-a-half hours. Frankie’s first meet is at Felix Festa Middle School. The sprawling campus has multiple buildings and vast fields–but no bleachers. I spend much of the meet circling the chain-link fence that encloses the track. He runs the hurdles, the first event. His…

The poets and scientists will march. The politicos will damn them with faint praise or callous ignorance. The pundits will pontificate. Meanwhile, the producers will plunder to satisfy the consumers, as long as cash or credit exchanges hands. Nothing is so real as the value of abstract symbols, like the digits in a financial account. Certainly…

Arm-in-arm, shouting our song on a beer-drenched floor surrounded by on-lookers. Trading banter in varying-scaled bars from the Upper East Side to Newburgh, NY. Laughing at a lactose-intolerant gaseous discharge in a van. All these echoes of good times with good friends. So many of whom I allowed life to come between myself and them.…

http://www.imagecurve.com/making-pizza-again/

First day back from Spring break. Ninth-graders filter in to our fourth-period class, talking non-stop. While I struggle to distribute handouts, I catch a glimpse of Paris and Hannah talking with my team-teacher, Verna. I hear her say, “it’s fine with me, but go, ask him.” They head toward me. Paris speaks first. Her face…

Take a seat. Close your eyes. Feel that breeze on the back of your neck from the open window. Hear the sparrows, robins, orioles, and finches sing. Smell the faint aroma of the lit candle. Taste the remnant of an over-easy egg and toasted everything bagel with the spread of unsalted butter. Thoughts arise. Let them.…

https://www.thehaikufoundation.org/2017/04/16/earthrise-rolling-collaborative-haiku-2017/#comment-66838

Somewhere, an injured squirrel lies in a yard. Turkey Vultures circle overhead, waiting. Somewhere, a full school bus stops for the last child on the route. The occupants refuse to look him in the eye. Somewhere, a young man with brown skin is followed by the cops through the aisles of the bodega. It’s not…