Our subject lay down to sleep
before the old wall clock struck twelve
soon to be awakened from a first dream
by the phrase "child bearing years"
                          ringing in the ears
Then back to the comfort of slumber
only to be startled anew in the middle
of the night with repetitions of the words
"child bearing years". Nothing else to hear.
A third dream cycle came to an end at sunrise
as the mind still echoed "child bearing years"
and implied an invitation to stay in bed.
A day to sleep in 'til mid-morning
to wake up and wonder why
the unremitting hours of insistence
on "child bearing years."
                        

from fire to fogo to fuego
throughout the county the power of flames
ardently affects lives and livelihoods
for as fate would have it the trucks
of the old safety station near downtown
were on a rare rest and relaxation
when ye olde English breakfast diner ignited
and burned like toast to a crisp to the ground
while the coops at the mid-county spread
of the venerable Portuguese farmer
met an ignominious incinerated end
and the carrack-like barracks of so many
Mexican field hands had no seas to sail
but rather a road ablaze to pits of embers
and painful remembrances to remain
in the glare of a devilish inferno
for countless cadre in the county to endure