If I could give to you your father whole, but I can not give to you your father whole, he would be free of the demons that made him eat straight from jelly jars then turned him into a poltergeist shuffling through the hallways at midnight. He would be free of the strokes, tics, and…

I imagine you would take us with you, perhaps rolled up in a Persian rug or tucked in hidden pockets of your luggage carrying white shirts, socks, and underwear. There is no need to take us out right away, no need to show us around. Forget about us as you do your spine or spleen….

Thanks to the local bradas, playing uke Friday night, anybody’s backyard, Pauoa valley. The clink of their green bottles drifting up to moths dancing in the porch light guiding my way. And to Nana who comes faithfully to early mass every Sunday, dressed in low-heeled-square-toed shoes, genuflecting before a mosaic of apostles in stained glass…

images like a Frida Kahlo painting; a woman falling from a New York city skyscraper bloodied with eyes wide open, images of brutality in a Dominican Republic cane field against large breasted young girls shining in their last breath, all of it for love, love, love. Images of you and I at the cafe where…

(on viewing Choris' portrait of Kamehameha I ) It was morning when I first saw you on a slim side wall where someone might absentmindedly flip a light switch. Not the center of the gallery with guards flanking you, cordoned off by velvet ropes. Instead you are housed in a small common frame constricted by…

What to give you? The black bird or the perfect arc it made while flying upward over green cypress reminding me of Roman coliseums and grander things than this three story walk-up. Perhaps a moment, which expanded and breathed when I saw fragile translucent star blossoms a field of them blanketing the lawn that one…

Father Sky looked down on all the beauty of Mother Earth the hills, the valleys, then clasped her tightly. So close was the embrace, their children the winds, the forests, the birds only knew darkness On their knees and shoulders, the children pushed them, no- ripped them apart so they could live in the light….