I started writing when I was 15, trying to “Crystal Blue Persuasion” the poetry world.  46 years have passed since then, taking all of a single second.  Just released from Urban Farmhouse Press is my book of poems called Booking Rooms in the Kuiper Belt.  Also available: Bend of Quiet from Blue Light Press.
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The Family of Henry VIII
(painting after Hans Holbein)
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At the center, of course,
Henry—God put him there.

Jane Seymour, “Bound To Obey
And Serve,” obeys death now,
serving the King’s desires
even as bones.  The other wives 
x’d out.  Not even Anne’s 
or Katherine’s heads
can roll into a painted corner.  

Two daughters,
in and out of favor,
their brother, the prince,
who would die at fifteen,
like a lump of gold light,
unlike his sisters, 
just lumps.

What did Henry see
in Mary’s eyes?  
Elizabeth’s eyes?
The mothers he ruined,
did their voices snag him
before sleep or were 
those women
sealed-off palace rooms 
that Henry avoided,
less real than dust
behind a throne, 
his throbbing leg 
ignored by ghosts.