Lockdown

showering

discovering the shower
under lockdown
not just to get clean
but to linger
delighting
steamy soft water
trickling down me

my toes miss the stream
yet standing tall
I can raise my feet
or soak them in
the tepid waters
circling the drain

my feet

my forgotten
tireless laborers
i am guilty
of neglect
i owe you
everything

thank you
for carrying my heart
closer to my loves

thank you
for balancing me
atop red stilettos
swirling dizzying
pure abandon
as we dance this
scrumptious tango

soaping

from lisbon i carried
yellow jasmine soaps
in old handmade boxes
the rose ribbons undone
i place the essences
in this white shower tray

as i froth soap and water
i travel back to nights
of the blueberry spices
of ruby red port wine
nostalgic fado songs
strings slowly fading

January Review.

after the shower

dabbing perfume
on my wrists
behind my ears
when there is
nowhere to go
the world locked
down solitary
self-pleasuring
this scent my
only companion

January Review.

do i get dressed

or stay in this
overworn nightie
i prefer to dress up
style this wild nest
powder my face
slap on some loud
raspberry lipstick

i like to pretend
a friend will call
to meet for coffee
sitting six feet apart

my hair, a measure of time

uncolored roots
expose their
natural grays

might monochrome
fit the rest of me?

uncut, now i can play
with styles à la
betty grable movie
i watched last night
roll it up into bumper bangs
crowning my face

i look like my young mother
proudly holding me in her arms
in this now beige photograph

January Review.

two hearts

upon rising your heart

still torn on the pillow

wails for brothers and sisters

straining for one more breath

you begin your day
pretending life isn’t bad
change ominously into challenges
search for some logic some promise

though you know how little can be done
this ferocious contagious genocide

Chest Pains

Our homes: enclosed.
Windows buried in
heavy apocalyptic

smoke, the world
outside gone, not
a trace of sky.

Without hints of day or night,
I could be floating over any city.
Buenos Aires. New York. Paris.

Towels fill the cracks
around shut doors,
seal me off from hazardous air.

Human lungs can’t absorb all
this human generated toxicity.

Defeated inside our forts
by an enemy long-denied.

Floods. Droughts. Fires.
Such ominous chest pains

warning of a body’s
impending collapse.