In the Throat of a Tree 
— after a line in Rachel Eliza Griffiths’  poem, “Whipping Tree”

If given in small doses
death will weigh down the throat.

Drowning is tied to a shoulder blade
of gravity. Wait. Hate is as heavy as a fan,

as widespread as contagion is furious.
Heat is compressed until something snaps.

In certain trees there are tangled knots.
The furcula can no longer be wished upon.

Luminous stars are what I dream beneath.
The map of my interior landscape is an emergency. 

A response is an urgent call to escape.
Eager hands are hidden wager in abet.

Barbed wire is the accomplice to a bullet
as a bluesy sidewalk is to scat.

If given in just, harmless doses
air will weigh in on its own existence.

Felled trees are premeditated.
The evidence is a burning forest.

Embers scatter to the wind of jive.
The sound of timber is in different ears.

A mother knows the grave of her child’s cry.  
It sounds like a dose of less wait.

Until she mourns the loss of lullabies
She will cradle the song of every breached tree.

Appeared in Kissing Dynamite, 2020

Changes

I am discovering new curves. An entire island of thought. There is a fever outside. In the forecast is a downpour of thunderous reign. A behavior of storms, billowing black smoke and burning landscapes into gray.  My body wants to move and stay in motion in a march of vivid melodies. I am my own fitness trainer now. Though inconsistent, I do not resist the notion to check myself. Too close for comfort, they say. Yet I avail myself anyway. I am intuitively here. My landmass is a flashback of infrastructures and hashtags rising. My name is a shock wave; a woke spray of innovative scrub. I cannot glove into a handshake when a firm elbow will do. I want to embrace my individual space, my rightful place when hued issues become sanitized views bleached from forsaken shelves. My hair, though I have preserved it, has become a texturized weapon. Though it breaks free, it is not a thug, nor should it be detained like contraband or taut to smize while censored. I am still being arrested for recurring transgressions against the critical eye who rebuttals, “The audacity of a liberated curl.” But this is not about fake dos. It is about my style doing what it does to rise. Remarkably, it can twist itself and release a voice of sound symbolism, then nappy itself into a desired shape that snaps back to be heard.

Appeared in Dissonance Magazine/UK , First place poetry contest, 2020

Selected Poems

Holding Space… , I-75 Review, Forthcoming, September 2026
The Topography of Modern Music, Jerry Jazz Musician, Forthcoming
A Golden Shovel for Nikki, Here Lies Buried Anthology, Forthcoming
The Taste of Home, Foodstories, Forthcoming
Comfort Food, Foodstories, Forthcoming|
Ain’t Nothing Like Family (reprint): Foodstories, Forthcoming
They Don’t Know What You’re Thinking, Silver Birch Press, November 29, 2025
Walbridge, Ohio: The Body Poetic – An anthology of River Roots Poets, October 20, 2025
Who Dare Sing the Bars of their Song? Ekphrastic Challenge, Rattle, Sept. 18, 2025
Finding Truth, Poets for Peace – Sunflowers Rising: Poets for Peace Anthology, May 19, 2025
Pass Through Cities, Peace, Poetry and Policy Anthology, Forthcoming
haiku, Where the Mountains Were Anthology The Befuddled Press, February 8, 2025
Post Vogue, ONE ART: a journal of poetry, February 7, 2025
Twilight, ONE ART: a journal of poetry, February 7, 2025
At the Beauty Shop, Sheila-Na-Gig Online, Vol 9.2 – Winter 2024
Between the Lines (reprinted from chapbook), Silver Birch Press, September 27, 2024
Lord of the Flies, Traitor/Patriot: A Reflection of January 6th, Moonstone Arts Center, March 30, 2024
My Mother Sets the Dining Table with Love, Poetry is Life Publishing, Third Place, The Voices of Real 8, February 2024
Formal Education, Rise Up Review – Best of the Net nominee, Summer Issue, 2023
I Hear Music in the Kitchen, Jerry Jazz Musician, June 25, 2023
Conversation With the Great-Grandfather, North of Oxford – Most Read Poets of 2023, July 12, 2023
Night Vision, Flights Literary Magazine, print Issue, 2023
Tick-Tock, Flights Literary Magazine, print Issue, 2023
Saturday Nights, Jerry Jazz Musician, Spring, 2023 Edition
Solo, Jerry Jazz Musician, Spring, 2023 Edition
A Distant Hymn, As It Ought to Be – Pushcart Prize nominee, May 15, 2023
Drummer, Jerry Jazz Musician, Six new poets, six new poems, Issue, February 2, 2023
Unwavering, Poets Against Racism and Hate USA, April 2023
About the Looks at the Oscars, Hope Springs Eternal Anthology, Simple Simon Press, 2023
Another Attempt to Make Harid-Boiled Eggs, Hope Springs Eternal Anthology, Simple SImon Press, 2023
D’Anjou, ONE ART: a journal of poetry –Best of the Net nominee, February 20, 2023
I Blink for a Miracle, Of Rust and Glass, Scars, print Issue11, 2023
Perched on the Trash, Open Earth III: Eco Poems, Ohio Poetry Association, 2023
Snapshots, video, Poetry X Hunger, (Reprinted from Of Rust and Glass) April 30, 2022
Perched on the Trash of the World, Eco Poetry Contest, First Place, Common Threads, OPA, print Issue, 2022
Walking, Death Never Dies Anthology, Chimera Projects, 2021
Ruminating, Mock Turtle Zine, Issue 23, 2021
Snapshots, Of Rust and Glass, Hunger, print Issue 5, 2021
When My Car Was in the Shop.., Of Rust and Glass, Voices, print Issue 2, 2020
Listen, Of Rust and Glass, Voices, print Issue 2, 2020
Snapshots, Promedica Revealing Hunger Spoken Word Competition, First Place, video, 2016
In the Garden, Mock Turtle Zine, Issue 19, 2019

Other Publications

Every Part of This Letter is About Love, (essay), Letters to Our Children, Chimera Projects, 2025
The Letter I Never Wrote, (essay), Spark: Celebrities and Our Decisive Moments, Chimera Projects, 2024