From Where I'm Sitting (Day 2 of PAD 2025)

I've been writing web content for my day job and practicing short story writing but I haven’t written much poetry in a while. For me, the 2025 April PAD Challenge is about practice, and I'm a bit rusty.

Here is my poem for Day 2:

 

From Where I’m Sitting

Sixteen eyes look away

with nothing

to say.

  

Winds rock & roll

the old bones

of a flowering cherry tree—

an adult before we were born.

Rooms go dark as night

& sixteen eyes

pierce the veil

with nothing to say.

 

Someone somewhere

is locked in a state

of questioning whether

everything he has

he wants.

 

Two states away, young ones

fight abandonment—

punching through days

of self-imposed imprisonments

and directing thrill seekers where to go.

 

The world we once knew

is brand new, strangers shout

rather than smile

& forget that old saying—

when you point a finger

four fingers point back at you.

 

Sun shines through

a window at the end

of a long artificially lit hallway

few want to march down.

 

The sick stay home,

afraid of waiting

rooms where uncertainty

festers.

 

Five years past

we entered a foreign world

where microorganisms,

invisible to the naked eye,

held the power to take down

the world.

 

I remind myself—

little random acts still matter

as long as they reek

of kindness.

 

Sixteen eyes look away

with nothing

to say.

You can also fllow along with one of my favorite poets on her blog 

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Feeding Needs (A Poem for Day 1 of the April PAD Challenge)

We eat moldy bread—

free penicillin,

we say.

Never mind allergic

reactions from the real thing—

it's better than tossing it away,

better, we say

than having nothing at all,

better, we say, yes better.

We forage

in each other’s eyes

for that day—

the better one (we recall all those days).

We say, nothing is better than eating

nothing

with you

if there's nothing
to eat

we eat moldy bread.

Breaking Moldy Bread Can't Break Us

Happy poetry month!

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On Book Judging and Writer's Digest

I've been busy, though I'm still writing. I have a piece up on Writer's Digest about entering book contests if anyone is interested.

I do miss posting poetry. 

Have you published something lately? Feel free to post it in the comments. 

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