Cheetah

She’s fast
just by looking at her
body design
It’s evident in the way
nature made her
long, thin legs
deep chest for larger lung capacity
black tears down the face
a longer tail to balance and steer

Such a good mother
to cubs who sometimes don’t
make it to adulthood
as she preys so her cubs
become prey
for lions and hyenas
They are stronger than she
this lonely mother
with no help raising offspring

Still neither of these creatures
chirps and purrs
the way cheetah vocalizes
giving the illusion
she’s not as ferocious
as those who roar
or bark

Centered in Blue

earth is
thirsty for what falls
from above azure
as steely bundles of porous
cotton blot it out
Their undersides form angry
grey masses
Heavy air electrifies
with potential

she
has no azure crowded out
by massed anger
just falling tears
from earth-tone eyes
Life’s drought
shows in aged skin

earth’s
Golden leaves lean with invisible
pressure moving through their
branches that fall
when their cycle finishes

her
branches don’t reach
towering toward the sky
in mute supplication
They don’t sway with
powerful invisible forces
Desires drown in cupped hands
twist into a shapes formed
by concrete boundaries
binding an inconspicuous heart

Beneath the Corona

Midday the sun's corona shines
on the rich and the poor
Beneath its blaze a jet
flies south banks east
homeward or away
from its comfort

On the ground
a well-dressed woman walks
while chatting with a ragged
homeless man
They sit on a bench inside
a lighting distributor's fence

I check my wallet
already knowing I only have two dollar
bills inside
He needs them more than I do
as I'm on my way to the bank

Impatient for the bus
I choose a favorite song on the iPod
and sing as I walk to the next stop
I'm on my way to get the rent money

On the bus I wonder
if there's a difference
between this man and I
He has no home
I will hand over all but thirty-five
dollars of the deposit I just received
to keep a roof over my head

Yeah, we're both kind of broke