“Make It Work,” 12/15 from 21st Century Retablo. 11.7″ x 16,” mixed-media on archival paper, 2005-06. Permanent collection, USC Fisher Museum of Art.

POEM: make it work

the mother was lost     none could resist the pull of gravity/
who fell in the end     of the continuum     an observer of culture, she knew/
how to follow the protocols, requirements    still, she failed to fit/
the public system of grief     the process of disruption/

reinforced faults     the call of mourning doves woke her/
in her hands, the dusty remnants of blue feathers      it happened/
so quickly, the destruction     casual, happenstance     she wove/
a heavy blanket, unstable, as if to move too much would invite/

falling     the feathers caught on broken branches     no/
visible light could escape      his hands became her gloves, gently cross-/
stitched      one stitch followed another     would there be no end/
to her suffering     she raised the prospect of irreversible damage/

an uncertain outcome over an uncertain timetable     if the progenitor/
mass was larger, the resultant core was too heavy     no matter/
how energetic    “make it work through discipline and order”/
she hoped the mark would outlast her /

so much was suspect when all was formed of belief/
to move things forward      “stuff your womb with crinkled paper/
to prevent pregnancy”    as two children holding hands, the world/
revolved around her     what could be believed in the beginning /