kids at school
with ash on their foreheads
must be that time of the year

Lent offerings
giving up everything
. . . even homework

head bowed
she escapes
her own mind

back row of the church
barely listening
lost in thought

top quarter champion

TOP half Chamption

bottom quarter champion

nervously fidgeting
time to kneel
soot stained forehead

ashes on my head . . .
an unknowing friend tries
wiping them off

spring thunderstorm—
the gas-station worker asks
the meaning of the ashes

his mother explains
the ashes
he takes her word for it

TOP half champion

CHAMPION
 

BOTTOM half champion

purple and gold beads
her shirt lifts
into the night

thousands of beads
hang from her neck . . .
the popular woman

Mardi Gras beads
litter the streets
. . . plastic boobies

wrong time
for a family vacation
Mardi Gras

top quarter champion

BOTTOM half champion

bottom quarter champion

jazz
and her, dancing
unrestrained and beautiful

getting lost in the song
the time moves faster
than the music

lonely Mississippi
distant trumpet
whispers secrets to the stars

homeless man
and his tarnished saxophone
single street light