just five days before arrest,
at the Loft Artist Association’s
Annual Spring Fling, his words
implied US terrorism abroad brought
terrorists to its shores

Stamford’s poet of the people,
vivid native of Antiguan beauty,
bright lord of tension’s colors,
Mandingo, activist poet, six weeks in
a Hartford jail facing deportation

(adapted from Faith’s
Wednesday night poetry blurb,
January 21, 2004)

eldest of the multigenerational blondes
in the society – Historian / Sustainer /
Grandma – one who maintains traditions
like the New Year’s reading of
Capote’s Christmas Memory, visits
to the sick complete with
dinner, and the photo archive –
no matted locks for you,
but a pert ponytail, now
white, brings your past forward

Magistra Ludi in our protected
feminist Castalia – crisp, lucid and
articulate, domina dressed in patchwork
vest, black pants – it’s safe
enough to study power’s perils
in your classroom until the
day we learn Iscariot kisses
can scar a woman too –

the rosary is broken, glass
beads smash, some roll away

great she-bear when pregnant,
hair and face and voice
of Goldilocks – sly innocent with
husband a conquistador who often
disappeared into the bathroom, you
prematurely bore a tiny daughter,
Robin, blonde, she wouldn’t breastfeed –
so glaring at your errors,
you pay the piper, steal
a pig, away you run

the lana of ansonia, discovered
on a subway and recruited
as a high-priced private waiter –
but he prefers binoculars to
the mirror, sets his sights
on deserts not dessert, amigos
not admirers, clean energy over
cleaning up – he seems to
break a number of natural
laws, will keep you posted

the severity of the serenity
of the thing the sublimity
the stubbornness the successes
the failure the fall the fell
the fall from grace the
graduation the meeting you
shouldn’t have to introduce yourself
to me but that’s how it happened
awkward intersection so there
we are flowers the fading

brown velvet jacket, blouse full
of sloppy ruffles, pants marked
with intricate designs, toe ring –
style is valuable, I’m jealous;
her insides stylish too, taking
refuge in the Triple Gem –
committed to advance, retreat, awaken,
both puppy ready to play
and disciplined yogini, blessing shines
in her long elegant spine