wet is all
and everything depends
on these drops
speaking to us
seeping into soil
down window panes
tickling the worms
in love with
this spring storm
we all are
surrounded by falling
sky, asking important
questions, do you
listen? are you
kind? do you
feed the earth?
After years of bringing students to volunteer with Lava Mae, I was so happy that my daughter and her friend were able work with them yesterday in the Mission District of San Francisco.
Lava Mae is a San Francisco–based nonprofit that delivers mobile showers and other critical services to the street, where people moving through homelessness need them most.
For more information, please visit: https://lavamae.org/
they usually know
what they want
the gum or
shiny People Magazine
others walk the
aisles, an activity
to pass the
time in fluorescent
lights, examine lipsticks
red and pink,
most days there
is a man
sometimes a woman
who sits out
front, any help?
it is both
question and statement
they are usually
ignored except for
those few who
drop quarters in
the old coffee
cup, thank you
they say, and
customers smile before
looking for cuticle
scissors or deodorant
to smell better
this is all
normal at Walgreens
in San Francisco
maybe other places
She squirms, arches belly up,
scratch me, love me, don’t forget me.
Eyes and eyelashes, wise and long,
this one-year old furry seer, knows
if you are kind. Sometimes I ignore her
paws clawing at the sky, asking important
questions. How can you focus on
anything more than me, than this
moment, do you see me, really see me?
Here I am, I love you. Where’d you go?
Did you forget?
You are me too.
I believe
that you
are me.
We are
each other.
The same
but different
like stars.
Daniel W. Polk 