Concrete Miami is not a vacation, or a beach it is hotter, and open -- a raw nerve, a wound torn open in the swamp a glassy sea, smudged with fingerprints where a thousand thousand boats have trawled a teeming anthill with signs that say "We Speak English" where the trees plot with poison and the ants learn quickly, quickly to curse in Spanish. ----- A/N: This #poem has shamelessly copied the form of another, more famous #poem as a writing exercise. See if you can figure out which one!

Flying Lesson On a cliff without an edge, In the sky without a sun, He discards his cage and crouches, His battered suit flapping, black Against the sky. In the sky without an end, On the cliff without a shade, Birds fly to leash-edge and dance; And the man holds to threads of faith Against the fall. --- A/N: #poem about the painting "Flying Lesson"

Family: A Sonnet Mom bought kimchi that boils when opened And I pour it over sticky rice with a spoon, Rice that leaves slug-trails where the bowl's broken. Obaasan taught my sister in June To break an egg, corners pricking into Fingers like a puppy's tapered teeth, mixing yolk Into hot rice. Tìa taught me to stew arroz con pollo, scents that can evoke A sigh from Mayan gods, with tomatoes Floating like scarlet jellyfish among The little yellow grains. These little tornadoes Of flavor from across the world are flung Across my tongue, my whirlwinds of spice Obaasan, Tìa, Mom, me, and rice.

Hey! Hey y'all, sorry I've been gone. I had a depressive swing, and unlike most poets I don't usually write poetry when I'm depressed. But that's over for now, and i've got lots of new material for you! Enjoy!

A Prayer Only in you do I find peace, my Redeemer. So many questions drown my reason in screams of agony, as the protestations of a screeching wife drowns the goodwill of the most gracious of husbands. I have days where the evidence of you is something my heart doubts and my body screams against. I have nights where you flee from my mind and it seems that you leave me for the cruelest of predators. My bowels gnaw at the screams of my soul -- the two, the pair -- the predator and the scavenger -- the wolf and the coyote. But even when my heart disbelieves and my mind drowns, I will proclaim with my mouth and declare with my hands the Truth of your word. I will suffer, as Sin with inscestuous abominations gnawing at her bowels -- in anticipation of the merest glimpses of rest and peace in your presence. This I declare, Accuser, tormenter of my soul. Do the worst you can inflict upon me. Do you truly think that my Redeemer will not stand against you? And, if it is God's will to allow my suffering, do you not remember that you only have jurisdiction for twenty, forty, eighty years more? I am the Lord's, and I shall serve his will and name until eternity ends. Any power I may have given you, I renounce. Let me tell you who you are, Satan. You, you are the snake beneath my heel. You, and your lackeys who are less than the dirt beneath my smallest toe -- Sickness, #depression, Distraction, Fear, and Confusion. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will not fear you, snake. My Lord Shepherd will crush you with rod and staff at my merest request. You are doomed to eternity in the fire, Filth. Lord, when I am confident, be with me. Lord, when I doubt, rescue me from the clutching chaos of confusion-- Lord, when I fear, comfort me. Only in you have I ever found strength. Be my peace in plenty and pain! This I declare. This I pray. This I sing, my Lord Almighty. Amen. #faith #pain #prose#poem #whoeversaidthiswaseasy #didyoumissme?