How La Guitarra Was Born
Long ago, there was a vaquero
who rode alone on the plains
except for his horse,
and his herd of cattle.
Ode to the Automobile and Human Happiness
How much human happiness can we stand?
I don’t know but don’t we all like to drive fast?
Little Richard
What was it that gave me the discerning taste
when I went into the record store in 1958,
when I was twelve years old, an ordinary kid (white)
in the suburbs, middle class, to buy the album
Here’s Little Richard?
Lights Turn Off in May at the Gateway Arch to Assist Migratory Birds
It makes sense in every sense
of the word
to turn the lights off
for the song bird,
that she may find her way.
Love’s Executioner
I come from a proud Polish poet sent to Siberia, right
arm cut from his body, punishment for poems—
the first daughter of a man from Naples who was
a baby in a ship’s hold, women screaming and praying