signs

hot pink
handmade signs urge
Open Your Bible . . .
daylilies gone wild
bloom in the summer sun

~Atlas Poetica 20, Jan. 2015

preserve
our family values
on a billboard . . .
the homeless man’s sign
reads cancer in the bone

~Atlas Poetica 20, Jan. 2015

the child in me

an amber alert 
on my cellphone
at midnight 
the child in me 
goes missing in the dark

~Atlas Poetica Urban Special Feature “The Garage, Not the Garden” Oct. 18, 2013

border crossing—
at the foot of the wall
between them and us
a handmade ladder
and a child’s torn shirt

~Atlas Poetica 20, Jan. 2015