April is the Month of Sorrows

a silent epidemic Emmilee Risling is still missing*

Tiananmen Square and Bucha April is the month of sorrows**

Xiong Yan the Chinese government neither forgives nor forgets***

clear blues skies not everyone gets a chance to enjoy spring

trees in bloom if my father were here, we'd be hiking

*Indigineous women face murder rates almost 3 times higher than white women. Friends and family of Emmilee are hoping she's still alive, and that they will find her.

**Bucha, Ukraine

***Xiong Yan was a dissident who escaped the Tiananmen Square massacre. He is running for public office. Evidently, the Chinese government feels threatened by his candidacy. They hired a private detective to frame him but that backfired.

the past curls into its grooves of darkness

pic of putin behind bars what should happen but never will

the earth's not the problem it's one foot opposing the other 

coat pockets, water, and a notebook I'm ready to wander

youth is on the greener side of the fence

flickering lights the electric bill looking up at me from the table

cedar beam the past curls into its grooves of darkness

night walk in the fog clears my head

where he used to live the bicyclist pedaling through Chernobyl

out standing in the rain with my frizzy gray hair and my eyelashes stuck together

The Vodka Notebooks

mixed drinks and slurred words from the vodka notebooks

"putin's ear" I don't want anything he's got

russian nationalism every country has its own brand of it

spring blooms of the callery pear crowding out the serviceberry

windy day a repeat of yesterday

headache: the body's manifestation of reading too much bullshit

trump and putin's alternative facts it's hard to say who copied whom

the devils' playbook as if the devils needed one

"oh, say can you see," no, but I can hear the yellow warbler

"four dead in ohio" fast forward to more dead in ukraine*

*Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young song title

putin's mind more of a cancer than his thyroid

this one's been recorded

(Had to remove links to this article. Apparently, links to articles get your blog flagged. Especially, if the links are outdated.)

First, I'd like to state that I don't have anything against police officers. I wouldn't want their job. Every call they never know what they are walking into. Second, I'm not for defunding the police. Give them better training. Make sure they have access to counseling. They should all have body cams turned on while they are on duty. The body cams are for their protection as well as a visual record of what really happened. Third, police officers make mistakes as they did when responding to Raymond Rachal's call for help.

A customer who was drunk came charging through a barrier that separates the front desk clerk from the hotel guests. Rachal defended himself and subdued the guest. He then called the police.

I've worked the front desk at a hotel. I don't know what I would have done had some guest charged after me in this manner. Guests aren't allowed to cross the barrier where clerks are working. It's a safety issue. 

Unless you're a bank robber, you wouldn't go beyond the teller barriers at a bank where the tellers are working. And you don't do that at a hotel.

However, if I would have called the police, I would have gotten a different reception from the responding officer because I'm white not black. They would have listened to me. They failed Rachal. It's clear from the video Rachal never pushed back at the officer who was pushing him. 

Not only that, Rachal was arrested and not the white customer who caused the incident to begin with. Eventually, the charges against Rachal were dropped. He never should have been charged.

I don't know what was going through that officer's mind but the mindset that's out there needs to change. 

front desk clerks we take the peaceful evenings for granted

january guest log we have the right to defend ourselves against violence

because you're drunk isn't an excuse you made that choice

hotel security camera thankful this time it was on and working

extra pillows and more towels no one ever has enough of anything

sometimes meth if they only stay a few hours and bring trash bags into the room

another day in america the victim calls you for help and you arrest the victim

injustices often follow those who pursue justice

this moment

ceramic greenware part of mom's unfinished diary

shoulder pain the same trauma from the same accident 

sunset I waited all day for this moment

what does a leaf feel like before it falls

detachment becomes something you're attached to

switching rooms in the dust of abandonment

the paintbrush never questions my choices

freeze warning my blanket thinner than I remembered

it's what lessens all of us

broccoli casserole I think of you while chopping onions

two-hat day one for the wind and the other so I don't have to hear it

floodwaters not givin' a damn about any of our haiku

welcomed at first the formalities to technicalities to hostilities

the same ol' dirt road y'all make me weary

in the distance I can see the bitterroot mountains

double down zelenskyy "nothing less than victory" 

every war it's what lessens all of us

propaganda machine it's a well-oiled tool used by every government

debit card defiance the russians booking visa tours to uzbekistan

flashback 2016 israeli jews dual citizenship in russia revoked so they couldn't vote

muslim refugees their basic freedoms confiscated by putin's regime*

*Some had their passports taken away, some were deprived of a basic education. In rural areas, some had their land confiscated so they had no means to make a living. Some of these refugees are now living in the US. 

in the beginning

bare patches of ground the ants succeed where the grass has failed

farmhouse chimney the slant of its shadow as if you were the one leaning

world news making me more tired than I've ever been

still strangers even though we share the same suitcase

after the prairie burns there's enough smoke for more tears

ghost elm the old wounds never healed

stranded on the beach the driftwood not drifting anymore

in the beginning no one was there to record it