National Poetry Month, days 6 and 7

Day six was about heartbeat. Day seven was plucked from a word mash-up. . . Here's "Helicopter Shopping Mall" and "Sand Candy Milagro"

""Helicopter Shopping Mall"

Everything smelled of formaldehyde

retail glass

commercial carpeting

new shoes

when I would not hold her hand.

For the very first time

I would not be so close

I would not be a child so publicly.

I cannot redact from memory

the collapse in her

that day.

I was just tall enough

to hear her heartbeat

every time that she hugged me.

That day I could not bear the sound

I could not be so close

Her heartbeat was helicopter strong.

Loud enough to remind me of her mortality.

Lub dub

Lub dub

Lub dub.

"Sand Candy Milagros"

ocean and ocean and ocean

all waves and swell

we white

we brown

we swim

we burn

the cantina

we hear

that speaking

the swirling

another once strange

another place

another tongue

little fish

big ocean

we watch men

with one old woman

appear

push fruit

push coconuts

push candy

in big carts

across the beach

sand candy milagros

we soften

handcarts all or ocean

her old pushing

ramshackle

and juicy