Community

I belong to brown skin

and Spanish accents.

I belong to rainbow flags

and matching outfits.

I belong to pointed feet

and pained arches.

I belong to dramatic exits

and center stages.

I belong to loving smiles

and pain filled hearts.

I belong to study groups

and the middle class non-identity.

I belong to faith

and to the currently faithless.

I belong to love

and every single.

I belong to crazy

and drug filling routines.

I belong to drinking

and liking to party.

I belong to me,

meaning I do not belong to you,

and therefore, we, all of us, are unique.

Three Students in a Room

The quiet scratching of their pens

covered by the cool Icelandic

music washing mellifluously over their tired brains.

They lean steadily over futures,

working readily into responsibility.

Their hopes augmented by caffeine.

Three students in a room

strain tired eyes by lamp light,

regressing uncomfortably from playing.

I'm cracking. I'm numb.

A September angel

whispered "espero,"

breathing eternity

scandalously.

I'm cracking.

I'm numb.

Her bare body

is smoldering sex

with the pull of her fingers

across her belly.

I'm cracking.

I'm numb.

Her invisible brother

could be insatiable

but is hiding underneath

a shell of a shawl.

I'm cracking.

I'm numb.