Pendulum

1.
I carved a long list at 13
dissecting hate and greed.
Into the leather office I went,
where a bald man introduced
Provisional pill.

2.
When mom is stable
she tells me I should refill.
When she dips into sulks
she says I'm too dramatic.

3.
pen in hand, I tiptoe the edge, on one side
whirling tides of lost mentalities collect,

crash into rotten gold, carrying Pulitzer
in the ruff. On the other, satire filled clown

balloons pop along a D.C. fence; under
Creamsicle sun, Indian faces crayoned red.

4.
Accommodate rage, dismiss
neutrality; you've got to give
enough to give nothing at all.

5.
As my 13-year list sits in a memory box
I tried to ressurect our garden.

August, my seed births a face, dangles
on its withering stem.

my mother snips the stem,
urges once it buds, it dies.

I let the midget sunflower do a bob-
balance in vase water until September.