FOR L.A.: TWO PAYCHECKS FROM DETROIT   PART 1

Whether we call it encumberment or our magnum opus,

For the passionate, the soul has been claimed—

tethered so as not to wander too far.

Or come too close.

The experience is like biting into a plum at the farmer’s market on

A hot summer day:  sour, sweet, ripe and dripping with a sweet sacrifice

FOR L.A.: TWO PAYCHECKS FROM DETROIT   PART 2

You didn’t do a bad thing

any more than a dandelion seedling

Pushes its tender body through the sharded walls

Escaping in the crack of its sidewalk cemetery

just to feel the light of day.

Helen Shoemaker