My heart leapt out of my chest. “Do it,” said a voice in my head. So I did. Summer heat singed my skin, fruit flies roamed over my head, headbutting me across the face. The sun hung high in the sky, watching us with a piercing eye from her fiery throne. Ah, July, the peak of summer. It was the time of family vacations, weekends on the beach…

Painting in the dark of the night Watercolors from the moonlight Blue, green, and white Fingertips dyed in stardust Eyes in rings of Saturn lost You would think sleep comes at midnight But sleep flies on the wings of dust Singing to the endless night Sleep, sleep, sleep, says an owl past midnight But if I closed my eyes…

— 100 and Under Fall Competition Winner Remember me when the first orange leaf falls Write to me of how— Grey clouds faded into pumpkin pies Of the time you made soup for two And hid my share in your stomach! Of the day you spent searching for a missing sock For eternity and one day When…

A poem — on a strange fall season — The trees are sweating still The leaves have grown ill The air of oil and rubber reeks The birds sing for Boreas Whose eardrums with plastic wax were sealed The beaches have gone sore They beg for winter, “Please, no more!” The autumn blossoms push their heads out of dry grass They’re crushed and pulped underneath The poppies, May…

If some would speak of the fall, others would speak of the leap. — The sun draws near as if pulled by strings Ones attached to his wings Close and closer he flies Her eyes are fierce Her chest heaving, nostrils seething ‘How dare a mortal dare!’ His wings her teeth pierce ‘Blue shall be your grave’ She curses and sneers Not in dread…

A poem about coffee — At times, it does not rain At times, it pours What am I to do with this brain “Why do you sit there like an envelope without any address on it.” …

You fade into the mind Not from it The cold, heartless world Shivered at the warmth of your breath You sang to deaf hearts Hoping they would dance for you A nightingale singing to the gales of winter A dandelion against the wind A comet You never fly by twice at daybreak Tomorrow would bring you back I…

A strange story of a writer’s dilemma between using the word “tantalize” and “tease.” “Tantalize” is a word I often do not use. Tantalize stares up at me from the page. ‘How pretentious can you be?’ He teases me. ‘Do not tantalize me,’ I say. Tantalize: “I do not blame you. How dull would it be to summon ‘Tease’ instead of me!” Tease: “Why drag…

I used to have four eyes. I still have four, and I couldn’t be more grateful. — The flaws in my body For the first time, I finally could see I finally could love them As a mother loves her firstborn My eyes are seeing My eyes are breathing The fire in the blue The sharpness of the green The waves are kinder The grass is sharper Cutting through the mirage Splitting the noonday sun in half The…