Karma and the Colorful Purse

Today I bought
the colorful purse
that will either match or clash
with everything I wear,
and a red wallet
with room enough
for discount cards
from every store I've ever
walked into.
They were on sale
and I got an extra 20% off
just for being
over 50.

You are here,
again.
No, not "again".--
Only in the ether
of an old woman's mind,
whose subconscious cannot see
the grey hairs
on her head.

Mini-Series

@ 14,
I hung onto
the romance,
tantalizing, subtle,
and somehow, intelligent,
it became what I longed for.

@ 50,
I cry for their lost chances.

Mistaking him for her brother,
he cuts off
thirty years.

Realization

An old woman,
too plump to be pretty,
my lipstick travels outside
the lines.

A Christmas Poem

In the bleak midwinter
the Christ Child again
asks to enter into our hearts
and melt the ice that insists
on forming there
against our better judgment --
our attempts at thawing
only serving to set it afire
in a soul-consuming explosion--
our attempts at cooling
turning it once again
to ice.

To rage against
humanity,
fist clenched
and eyes--
is to be blind
to the effect
of the rage
on ourselves.