Science Experiment

Water
in a clear
glass bowl
mirror
paper
window
and a sunny day
my son and I make rainbows
he reaches into my youth
and pulls up the power to make
things happen

Notes From A Meeting

"This is serious!"
my boss said
referring to my time schedule
and I sunk
my teeth into my tongue
to hold it
from saying, "If
this is so serious, how come
my paycheck's a joke?"

math journal

i remember liking fractions
felt like a fraction
not a mixed number
with a whole by my side
but a proper fraction
less than a whole
less than one

didn't feel the same
about decimals
maybe because decimals
even the zeros
had their place

high school math meant algebra
nothing i could relate to
the x's and y's
i needed to find
weren't in my textbook

"math journal" originally appeared in the Fall '98 eidition of Lynx Eye.

(Untitled)

Grandma dipped her big
brush into a gallon of
shame and painted my portrait.
Served it up daily with dinner.
That was how I recognized me:
pressed between primer and
protective shellac
stretched thin across her canvas.
Broad brush strokes of guilt for
sins I didn't commit
my mouth rendered shut
smothered into silence.