Published in Texas Journal on Women and the Law
A measure of justice
40 pounds weighed on the public scale
the child's eyes
look down at his heart for mother.
It's Charleston. 1815…
Read MoreInside the Shawl of Midnight
Novel-in-progress
What must it be like to have a sister, to be close to a sister, to share everything, then to lose her, to not want to believe that she is dead, to be separated so long that you might pass each other on the street and never notice? To lose her so long ago you only wonder occasionally if she is in good health, if she still lives. You forget what her voice sounds like, or believe you have forgotten because you cannot bring it to mind. What did she sound like? But then a miracle happens and years later when you are no longer young, no longer full of the possibilities of youth, but instead you are coasting on the remains of a lifetime of experience, and you hear a stranger’s voice ask, “May I help you?” and you know at once whose voice it is. You know the shape of the face, the dimple, the particular smile of those particular lips. And you recognize the light in the eyes of your sister.
Read MoreBeyond Portia: Women, Law and Literature in the United States
Feminist Legal / Literary Anthology of Poetry & Fiction published by Northeastern University Press
By suggesting that women lawyers move beyond Portia, the traditional patriarchal symbol of female perfection in the law, we hope to encourage the invention of new paradigms that will split open our thinking about these questions and move us beyond the binaries of male/female, insider/outsider, rights/caring, and justice/mercy.
Read MoreDismantling White Supremacy: The Importance of History and the Role of Neighbors
Published Online, Rename St*pleton for All
White people can’t change the story of our collective past, but we can influence the ending. For us to take responsibility for dismantling white supremacy, we must
Know white history—both collective and personal-- so we understand and are not surprised to learn of its impact on communities of color.
Explore white privilege-- how we benefit directly or indirectly.
Own that shameful history. It belongs to us even though we wish we did not
Disown white supremacy completely. Try to undo the damage it has caused.
Ghosts in the Writing Field
Memoir Excerpt
In the field of reverie I am wise and wordless. The urge toward words is small and moves quietly, simultaneously with all else that cannot be named.
Read MoreFour CU Alums Pull Teeth to Help Children in Cambodia
Article Published in The Coloradan
One little boy is especially scared and crying loudly. It is difficult to tell how much of his distress is physical pain and how much is fear. The noise increases tension in the room, but the professionals keep to their tasks. We worry that the boy’s screams will frighten the waiting children. “This is when you need a clown,” I say to Laurie.
Read MoreIt’s Loving Day
Special to The Denver Post
At the Arlington County Courthouse, they asked about our bloodlines, and in the box marked “race,” Pete wrote “B” for black. I wrote “H” for human.
Read MoreAisha's Daughters
Finalist, F(r)iction Spring Short Story Contest, 2016
I passed the entrance to Chitral Gol, the wildlife sanctuary where snow leopards hunt horned goats. A tree sparrow and a whistling thrush sang on the holly oaks on the cliff. In a field of snow-covered rhubarb, a pair of partridges called back and forth in staccato, as if I were a wild cat they were warning other birds. Crows swarmed as one body, cawing their criticisms wildly. Who is she? What is she doing? Why is she alone? Where is her husband?
Read MoreThe Drama of the Long Distance Runners
Published in Thinking Women: Introduction to Women’s Studies, Kendall-Hunt, 1995.
I watch you in the court
House coffee shop. Sitting next to
The angry young woman. The one with
A newborn tied to her chest. Fear
And despair criss-cross her back. You…
Read MoreGlenn Miller Was Missing
Published in War, Literature and the Arts, 1997 and in Thomas J. Cooley Journal of Clinical and Practical Law, 2001. It won a Clincal Legal Education Association poetry award.
Glenn Miller was missing. Somewhere over the English Channel,
his plane went down in December 1944. You'd been drafted,
even with a wife and two daughters to support and
day work in a defense plant and night work in the clubs,
your teeth clamped onto the reed of a saxophone, chin tucked in…
Read MoreRed on Her Fingers
Published in Tumblewords: Writers Reading the West, University of Nevada Press, 1995
Every morning it was waiting on the other side of her
eyelids; lingering near the coffee pot until fed;
it didn't eat much, though it ate often; at first
it was only a sound in her body, racehorses crossing
her chest; her breath and her heartbeat panting at the gates…
Read MoreAutumn in Five Parts
Selected Poem from What Remains (Turkey Buzzard Press, 2016) published in Colorado Women News July 1993 and Montelibre, 1993.
In early autumn, sunny gusts signal a shift,
the kind of mystery neighborhood crows warn about.
In the garden, the last zucchini lies down with the cucumber,
under an enormous frond.
Read MoreQuincentenary Poem: Civic Center Park, 1992
Selected Poems from What Remains (Turkey Buzzard Press, 2016) published in Colorado Women News July 1993 and Montelibre, 1993.
One by one they circle the park,
Eagles facing east from
Courthouse columns
Capitol dome
Museum fortress
The glass rectangular offices of industry.
Read MorePoetry Is An Act of Love
Selected Poem from What Remains (Turkey Buzzard Press, 2016).
To love a country is to know its poets.
Is there the soul of a human being in there?
Pure uncertainty yearns in a minor key.
Read More