Echo Parks Books - currently out of print
used at the eulogy of my mother - Nov. 2006
BEAUTY IS ALL I HAVE KNOWN
we all dies --one way or another --
ash or mud (philosophies aside)
our ultimate destiny.
old woman in the garden tells me:
the cricket, the owl.
even the bat -- beauty is all
i have ever known.
she is twisted as a gourd.
her fingers are rough vines.
some may have mistook her for a witch.
the mole. the snake.
even the spider -- beauty is all
i have ever known.
she now speaks like corn husks scaping the wind.
her eyes glisten like that of the crow.
SLEEP
old woman sleeps with angels
who keep lightning
in the mountains
& thunder on the other side of the valley.
when the wind is lost,
old woman gives it a place to rest.
her twisted fingers
fumbles rosary,
performs miracles in the hard dirt.
somemay have mistook her for a witch.
the cricket. the mole.
even the owl -
when God asks them of her,
their reply:
beauty is all i have ever seen.
