I’m here with paints and brushes
coffee cans of water, the stuff
they can hold and reach with
beyond their muffled borders
metal and glass- the frames of
their hard won, objectified land,
safe with the dangerous edges.
He wanted them
the bruises so easily hid
by longsleeves and Levis
on his sister’s sparrow limbs
but settled for stuffing guilt
in a pillow with his fist
to “Knock some sense” into it
and stockpiled cotton from aspirin jars
to jam in his ears
at night when Uncle Jack bowled
with empty Coors bottles
down the hall.
Dixie Salazar has published three books of poetry: HOTEL FRESNO by Blue Moon Press in 1988, REINCARNATION OF THE COMMONPLACE (national poetry award winner) by Salmon Run Press in 1999, and BLOOD MYSTERIES by University of Arizona in 2003. LIMBO, my novel, was published by White Pine Press in 1995. I have also published numerous poems and some short stories in about sixty different literary journals, including, THE MISSOURI REVIEW, THE RED BRICK REVIEW, POETRY INTERNATIONAL and PLOUGHSHARES, as well as quite a few anthologies such as MANY CALIFORNIAS, UNSETTLING AMERICA and HIGHWAY 99.