like bits of crystallized sugar

lozenges of sharp words flung

when one is young

slip down the mouth and come full rest

at perfect bulls-eyes just inside the chest

preparing a way for further knives


flipped across rooms

to exactly where the worst of wounds reside

down a toddler’s cotton-candy pink mouth

how unkind syllables do spin in early

and slash red as a sore throat

to where

even the repairing stitches must be sewn up jagged

from those harsh verbs, the pointed tips

leaving behind unmended gash lines black as railroad tracks

right across a stretch of skin

located just below the defenselessness of childhood collarbones


then—that familiar rip much like the renting of sheets

seams opening first to a drip next a puddle

which will forever gather as sticky sweet and unwelcome

as a caress of your own mother’s blood

Mixed Media on Paper 18 X 24 inches, 2007

Mixed Media on Paper 22 X 36 inches, 2007

Mixed Media on Wood 13 X 15 inches, 2007

Mixed Media on Heavy Paper Board Mounted on Wood 32 X 40 inches, 2006

Mixed Media on Heavy Paper Board Mounted on Wood 32 X 40 inches, 2008