Pigeon Cage Blues with Phoenix Rising
Wendy Loomis (piano), Monica Williams (flute)
Greg McRay (drums)

Drunken Song with David Wong (guqin)

Absence

for Mayra Rodriquez

how close are we

without seeing

touching


traveling

a wide road each day

handing out usefulness


or slumbering

waking to find

the day half gone


and if patience would yield fruit

there shall be many bushels

laced with a tinge of loneliness


not to mention bruises

caused by

the yardstick from my end

to yours


how close are we

without speaking


how close do you clutch each word

before you release

the spaces between a day’s work

and the sudden pang of poverty

that makes you pause

at the unseen


here

within four walls

a shadow hearkens


here

by the sea

salt on beached wood


your muted cognition

finds me exhaling your name


how glad we are

to have these sentiments

to hope

and wish

and thrive in bitter sweet malaise