My People

My people

married their first cousins

and passed on crooked backs

and congenital deafness -

my people scraped desert island hills

into terraces

and pleaded with the earth -

my people gathered the rain

in cisterns hidden beneath their huts.

There was never enough,

and poverty only begets beauty 

and generosity 

in the movies.

It's only true children are fear

and jealousy.

And that is why my people 

set sail

and did not 

return.

The First Day of Spring

The light and dark are equals

for this one day -

passing each other as they always do

in the halls of the sky at shift change.

What will Night do with his extra time

as Day takes on

her longer and longer shifts?

Does he have a hobby?

Like stamp collecting

or wood working?

And what has Day been occupying herself with

in her extra, off-duty hours

these last six months?

Has she been following the recommendations

of Oprah's book club?

Or watching all the Oscar nominees

while her colleague

watched the shop?

You have to feel a bit of sympathy for them -

they never get a vacation,

never take a week on some Caribbean Island

where the rum comes trimmed

with umbrellas and pineapple slices

or in a mountain lodge

curled up by the fire

with a blanket and cocoa.