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Tucson to Bisbee

Up and out by sunrise a bank of cloud
stretched over an orange sky
ranges of mountains left and right.
We are driving southeast to Bisbee Arizona
Watch For Animals Next 10 Miles
ocatillo red rock sagebrush and mesquite
Tombstone–The Town Too Tough To Die.
It’s a dry country and the same could
be said for all that grows here
tough wiry and scrappy.

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Neck

Pinched nerve knotted muscle dreadfulness

in my neck just as I held that African necklace

to my throat.  Ach! Was it cursed?

The gorgeous fat ochre bead so stunning

nevertheless stabbing pain took me away

and superstition kept me from going back.

My neck my Achilles heel my raison d’etre

my love and my nemesis tries to tell me All

yet I fail to comprehend.

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My Mother’s Room

Tucson and last I was here was the day my mother died.

Coming down the steps in the airport I rush back

to that night tumbling into the arms of my three sisters

I’d cried afresh. How would it feel to sleep in her room?

To be here, even, after two years away

two years without our mother?

The room is surprisingly peaceful.

The angel’s foot hovers above the bed

my mother’s Tiffany lamp sits beside

for the reading of a good book.

Whatever becomes of us when we die

has become of her. All is as it must be.

We are all where we must be. We are all safe.

I am safe, after all, in this room.