This month’s theme: “Where I Am: Poems of Place”
11/02 • Hometown • Chicago, 1986
We played Animal ball On the backyard grass Concrete-hard while autumn turned to Winter • My shoes Had 34 Embroidered on the heels And Walter Payton’s signature In ink • That year The wild card ‘Skins Committed grievous sins As the wild card, earning my Hatred
11/03 • Homebody
today wears grey robes
and flickers
the guttering flame
of autumn too warm
and too dry
from this rocking chair
I can hear thunder
rolling from
the throne and living
fire streaming from
the Ancient
of Days clothed in white
but I do not see
wheels turning
within wheels across
the sky a cracked pot
on the sill
harmonizes with
my aching back—the
chorus of
indelible fall
reminding us all
that this place
is not home chaos
dogs us on all sides
seething like
a renegade wave
and we build castles
in the sand
practicing for home
"We build castles in the sand practicing for home. ❤️