The Trinket Heart

Poem in response to Esperanza Gama's painting
"Los Milagros Rojos de Antonieta"










What trinkets do we attach,
like trinkets to the walls of crumbling churches
asking for blessings, and healings, and cures,
to the heart of our lover?

Will we ask them to cradle our heart?
Such a fragile thing in the hands of another.
Will we ask them to accept our faith and hopes and dreams?
On bended knee we plead to have some of our self in this union.

What part of our self will be taken or rejected?
Will you take this hand
and not the whole of me?
Will I be fractured and left to pour out of church windows?

Her eye gazes,
searches for the answers.
Crowned by virtue and virginity,
she looks out peering into the heart of another.
Drawing us into a ceremony of desire,
but not hers.

Two separate canvases painted
with fire and darkness.
A duel between my heart and
Family, Tradition, trinkets of Culture.
I long for you
to let me go.

Mother's Day

You’re quick to the step
and the smile.
You are there for her missteps
and her laughter.
A connection of love
And hope
And life.

Your gift is the sparkle
Of blue eyes
The shine of sun
Off blonde hair.
The giggle
And the snuggle.

You are her mother
My friend and love.
You are fierce protector
Of future
And worlds
And family.

That touch,
Such a spark of contact.
That cry,
Startling and reassuring.
Grounding you in the role
Of mother.




Just a poem for my wife on this Mother’s day. We have such an amazing life and love. Such an amazing daughter. The transformation of wife to mother is a dazzling spectacle. Becoming a parent is life changing, by definition and cliché. But to be there, for every minute, during this transformative process and to watch her grow into this role of mother has in turn changed me. I can think of no other true and pure example of the goodness of humankind than that of a mother with her babe in her arms and gaze. Even love is tainted by jealousy, envy, and the others. But their love, that purity and infallible strength, sets right the horrors of man.