Category: Artifacts

We borrowed them Saturday;
Mama wanted to wait for a week.

Six days later;
Is Friday close enough?

I spread out the books on the patio;
Sunlight is the best disinfectant.

The sun set;
Bring them in tomorrow.

Mama wants to flip them over;
Wipe them down.

Saturday we visited to Costco;
The kids hugged stuffies while shopping.

The sun set;
A full week gone.

We went back to the library;
Sunday Taiko drum concert!

Got more books;
Shopped for groceries.

The sun set;
Another day.

Monday breakfast came with wailing;
Way past a week!

Mama flipped them over;
Wiped them down.

The sun set;
I brought them in.

Two kids, sprawled out;
Reading in their room.

䷟

wait
no blame
push on
gain

Standing between opposite rivers
Toothpicks holding high four discs
Lighting the freeway
Snaking into the busy desert

Turning west
Facing the setting sun
One orange button seering my eyes
Sliding behind our serrated valley rim

Asphalt blending into the sky,
Early golden hour.
Twenty minutes further,
The hills blending into the road.

䷃䷆

a fool
assaults
a bandit
agony

“Spaceship Walk!”
I squatted and he climbed onto my back.

“Swing!”
I grabbed his arms and swung him between my legs

“Jump!”
I loosely cradled him in my arms and hopped a few times

“Roll over!”
I stood over the bed and dropped him onto a pile of blankets.

“Should I tell Mama about the fun we’re having?”
“Never!”

䷳䷁

don’t move
real self
best luck

She’s into Obby’s.
(Obstacle courses on Roblox).

Plays with her friends, chatting on facetime.
(Her brother watches over her shoulder.)

But only one hour on the iPad.
(What else to do?)

Staged a piano recital for the stuffies.
(They quickly got bored of mashing keys.)

He pulled out their fort building kit.
(From my sister, last Christmas.)

He started with a strange shape,
(Not the usual cube with a gabled roof.)

She saw immediately — a laser room!
(She added checkpoints, throwing scarves onto the floor.)

The lines in the tile are lasers too!
(Protect yourself with baby blanket shields!)

He nests a plastic carrot in a toilet paper tube.
“The Golden Carrot!”

䷑䷎

Don’t be a prince,
不事王侯，
Bù shì wánghóu,

be noble.
高尚其事。
gāoshàng qí shì.

Tractor trailer,
A box of silver reflections,
grey, blue, brown,
The road, the sky, the me.

Sun setting below a sign,
Orange tints green and yellow,
Buffalo Drive
EXIT ONLY

䷳䷕

mountain toes,
betwixt glass and rock,
grace and stillness,
no body,

A man jogs
Blonde mane,
Just shorts,
Stars and stripes.

Five lights repeating thrice
The sign blinks
>>>
(merge right, merge right, merge right)

A sun rises
through clouds
past skyscrapers
down Russell.

䷁䷇

yellow skirt
perfect fortune
no flag

I was on the couch,
She was practicing Chinese,
Mom was on the computer.

He handed each of us
A small slip of paper.
“Vote.”

On the front, he wrote “For”
He drew a line with a dot on the back.
“Write your name.”

My wife wrote her name.
I wrote “爸” (dad)
The girl added hearts to her name.

He called for
(a) “Cottage Cheese” (container)
for a ballot box.

We searched the cabinets,
Only found big
Yogurt tubs.

Never mind.
“It’s late!”
Time for bed.

䷧䷿

shoot falcons
liberating sheep
skipping over
cushioned walls