Saturday, April 8, 2017

Rewording

I do not wish to simply
write my will upon the backs
of other people’s words,
like forcing weight upon
the shoulders of camels

Sometimes when grading
a paper or providing a bit of feedback
there is that moment when I use
my pen like a weapon,
glittering edge

Invading the tiny space of letters
with new ones, removing
some phrases and planting them
elsewhere, heartlessly.


Lost Site

Working I found
myself waiting on the spinning
wheel, only to then find
my words and actions suddenly
(ruthlessly) deleted,
lost somewhere in the electronic
chasm that exists between me
and the rest of the digital world.
Someday maybe those words
will reappear, configured in a new
way.  I may not even recognize
them anymore. 

Thank You, Mona

Oh, Mona Lisa,
thank you for teaching
me today at the coffee shop,
a lesson in how to smile
without smiling

I’ve always tried to offer
strangers a warm mitigating
grin that says, trust me.  
I’m not so bad.

Maybe it seems childlike.
I don’t know.  It certainly
feels that way.
Modicum of wordless kindness.

But you taught me today, Mona,
not to soften the edges.
Let them be jagged,
no grin at all.

JD DeHart

Helpless I do not know if good intentions prevail among the elected, among the appointed, leaving me apprehensive that the fate ...