An offering of Guadalupe

A rose from Guadalupe,

given to Buddha,

as a child gives

a candle to a parent

to keep aflame,

in the wind.

Safely, she lights the

rosaries of Mexicans

to be answered at the Cathedral

of her hometown.

A rose laid down at the feet of a

woman who gave birth to her future,

and at a man who gave freedom to her past.

Siddhartha, I know you walk the Himalayas,

can you visit Oaxaca, too?

Edwardian England

Leonard Bast,

Edward Morgan had so much compassion

on you.

The value of connection not lost on him.

A member of the Apostles,

Edward protested the first World War.

He also created a passage to India,

as a minister to the Maharaj,

a secretary formally.

Did Merchant Ivory cause
your mortality,

or was it coventry where

the mysticism died?

I want to go where Angels
fear to tread, too.

Just like you.


Thanks to E.M. Forster
for being true, for being you.

Francais

Paris, My grandmother Laura loved you,
adored you and visited you, every year.

Her second language was Francais,
after Espanol,
before Englais.

I hoped to visit the Sorbonne or Lycee
but I am at the Pacific Oak Tree,
studying for good.

I hope you kiss your Parisiennes for
me, I have no suitors like her.

I do know Madonna likes thee and I pray
she is well.

C'est la vie.

Scotland Yard

My step-dad is Scottish and he used to take
us to the Scottish games.

My clan is McDougall and I am unsure of his clan.

He came from Arkansas and poverty.

However, he made a good life for us.

Maybe because he was loved by his mother

who used to run the cafe, that life turned

out this glorious way.

Polar Bears

My grandmother was German and a little heavy-set
in her old age,

the pages of beauty and sorority days
followed with six children and three

jobs to keep them clean and well-groomed.

She was an immaculate housekeeper,
and told me how with three jobs and six kids,
that didn't keep her from waking up every morning to
sweep the floor and keep the beds.

We called her "Muzzy" bear.

She liked to give hugs and collected
polar bears.

I called her everyday and cried when
she died.

We missed the funeral because of traffic.

However, I decide to honor her by
loving myself, I look a lot like
her at my age.

She looked Jewish like her "Muzzy."

Germans with light skin and dark hair
run in our family.

I am a Jewish mother, a homeless man told me once.

He was in his 40's and asked if he could be my son.

I was thirty years old and I agreed.

Babies

A baby smells like Heaven,
and their coos bring delight
to the soul.

Ukraine

The nesting dolls
tell of your young girls,
growing
up in the war, to find
marriage, children
and often widowhood, after.

Tales of generations,
inside each other,
fit to perfection.

The perfection of Hugo,
Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy-
said to the names of Anna Kerenina
and Three Brothers Karamazov.

Why did I spend money on your oil,
when I had no food to eat,

O ye widows of Jerusalem,

Aliyah is come.

I want to buy you a ticket

so you will be free.

Leaving on a jet plane,

don't know when you should

go back again.

The bear is not so grand

when you are a Jew in the land.