Poetry

a sense of place etched on her face erosion from emotion frozen as though she’d been wrote on in that cardboard burrow where every neuro, every furrow petrified traumatized and cast aside shuddering through sleepless nights struggling to win needless fights with blurry eyes and worry lines at sixteen going on thirty-nine leaving all she’d […]

A white woman, I had learned the history of horrors: grisly holds of jammed slave ships, cruel auctions of black families torn apart, picnics at lynchings of castrated bodies. Then at seventy-five I learned, dismayed, that it took two full years for news of Lincoln’s proclamation to reach slaves in Texas, not knowing they were […]

It’s a good thing that puppies are cute E’re their fate would be in deep dispute When they while away the hours Digging deep in your flowers Pulling them all up by the roots! Dottie Simmons

My sledge hammer Reigns down, Slowly dismembering What once was Well built. Hard as I swing Each joint resists My elder efforts To move forward, With new plans. Shingles fly, Glass breaks, Joints hold, Until they don’t … Kirk Gothier

Could it be Could it be I’d forgotten During the long months Of clouds and fog Forgotten the unbelievable bliss Of falling into the Infinite depth Of a clear sky full of stars On a warm night ✨ Dottie Simmons

(in honor of Petey Brucker) The barn swallows are back, Fresh from their long flight north. They sit on my carport roof And sing their nesting song. These old friends have returned On a day I mourn another friend, Dear Petey, who has passed on. I am grateful for their presence. Like detritus, irretrievable losses […]

sometimes when a black hand is raised the two first fingers split in the air it doesn’t mean Virginia Street, fool all day!!, riding…, it just means peace. It just means peace Gregory Downing

The African violet dies. Though I’ve moved it to a new window, given it the perfect light, it seems I did too late. It takes every ounce of creative energy to make a new life. This week the nail beds form, there will be no poetry. Last week: all those vertebrae, a cord as powerful […]

what goes better with the blue suede shoes: the pink peg slacks or the red blue jeans? This raspberry beret matches the pants, or I could do the fez and switch to the boogie shoes with the diamonds on the soles. Can I borrow your famous blue raincoat? The cheap sunglasses I got’ll accessorize with […]

I want to be A good ancestor To plant seeds for Future generations To harvest I want to leave A foundation For strong community Happy and willing to Work together I want to work For bringing humanity Back to humans Because a good future A strong future Needs all of us Dottie Simmons

Baby, I sang Guthrie for Guthrie in a psych ward in ’61 Ode to the times, the times gone bye…Oh the times, they’re always a-changin’. Back then, a penny was worth something. Now, we just keep ‘um to smash ‘um Don’t think twice but time never stands still Yeah, now I cover Coldplay, and tour […]