(These are excerpts—click on the title to view the whole piece!)
 

Slow Tango

today i'll master but one tango step,
and practice all the ones I learned before,
in the second room, while little girls en pointe
paint timid circles on the splintered wood
 

Dinner at the Morales'

the crucifixion of St. Richard Nixon
with the black beans, sprinkled
with minced onions, Sunday dinner
salted with cubano phrases
 

Verse for a Sad Grandbaby

Hush now, don't speak,
right now the moon
is trying on her dress of clouds;
we must not interrupt the show.
 

if it were up to me

if it were up to me, I would embed myself
in your left ventricle
that I might be part
of the skein of your illusions