Selected Poems

Babel | 2025

The city climbs into its hubris. 

Its inhabitants, drunk on the views, reveling in their creation. 

They recline in the coolness of their towers, giddy to keep the heat outside. 

They confuse the beating sun as attribution to their glory, for they know how to manage.

They speak of domination. 

Absorbed in themselves, their tongues lick inwards. 

Language is no longer an act of connection, but a grasp for control.

Speak to hear themselves, to savor the melody of genius.

They develop an interior tongue. 

Intentions trapped in their skulls, circling, crashing, collapsing. 

They look at their neighbor: a point of comparison, a subject of conquest.

They forget what it is like to speak for the sake of connection. 

Caged in their flesh.

She foretells the oncoming storms.

She whistles in the winds as they become stronger, 

and she nudges with the swells that turn acidic. 

But their ears are turned inward, 

listening to their internal tongues.

She bows to their deafness, 

taking to her mantle of sacrifice.

They see her submission and choose to build upon her. 

Vanity compels them to ravage her.

And when the waves come, 

when the city topples, 

their cries fall on turned ears.

And she? 

She maintains her genuflection, 

ready to give them her body for when they build again.

Waters fall over her lips, 

but it doesn't matter,

since she chose silence long ago.

Dam Smile | 2021, edited 2025

That smile starred her down,

Starry eyes swirling in the sand.

That dam smile, holding back;

Persuading compassion, commanding attention;

Straining to let one drop come through.

Just one: 

Would make the whole collapse—come to a quiver.

The rain would bellow through.

Light snapping, water collapsing

But for now,

A smile. 

A dam smile.

Published in 2020-2021 Literati Magazine, 'Incandescent' awarded a Gold Crown by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association

Dam Smile was rewritten in 2025 to reflect rebuilt dam sentiments

Dew Drops | 2021

Yellow light dancing with a gleam

Bright shards cascading through the geometric thread

One fell upon a beatle, scurrying out of sight

Finding comfort in the silent shade of the awning

A willowy flight, gliding to be unseen

And a onyxe suit, slicing through another watery swell

Dew drops falling onto an undisturbed surface 

Ripples cascading from the point of contact

The light dulls

The swim turns to sleep

The ripples calm

Light, dark

Life, sleep 

Till the gleam rises again, now pink with energy

And the triangles vibrate with dew drops sprinkled along them

The air is calm, gentle

Grazing my nose, my arms, my legs

I’m here, I’m alive

Published in OLLA Literati Magazine 2021-2022

Breath | 2021

I’ve been chasing the world

Treading the waves, swell after swell

Wave after crest

Current after tide

Why can't I just hold my breath

let the waves come?

To quit treading

To cease stroking

Let the waves hit

Hold my breath

Pummel me down

Spin me under

Let the sand scratch

Let the salt sting

Take it on

Stop Treading

May I learn to float?

So I can drift out

Sea, where it takes me

Open my eyes when the waves stop

When the foam settles

And when I find myself looking at the horizon

I let it

I'll just hold my breath

And let go of the weight

Sinking, further down

Drifting into weightlessness

I’m flying

Yet the air is above me

And the water is me

I’ll let it engulf

Swallow me

Take me

Until I’m part

Breathing that life in

Fighting no longer

I'm so tired

So I'm letting it

Willing it to

Breath

Just breath

It might not be air

I'll learn to live

To stop surviving

I'll find how to be

I'm not drowning

I'm not dead yet

I'm not surviving

I am flying

Finally...

Finally.

Just let the world find me

Stop trying to take it

Stop trying to carve a place in it

Let it take me

Claim me

Create me

Choose how to be me

I'm done treading

The reflections look pretty above me

Lazy swirls of blue and white

Sand so soft

It’s so quiet

The noise has ended

My voice is gone

The voices are gone

Only colors

Swirling in blues and gold and black and white

The salt stopped stinging

The scratches are numb

I've been pummeled 

But they are irrelevant now

Now they're just carvings, etchings to the person I've become

I'm sculpted by the water

Enamoring Quality | 2019

What´s the enamoring quality of undiscovered lethality?

Seductive plumbum throughout ages was a blessing at first.

Cosmetology coveted it,

The Romans constructed pipes with it,

Paints were composed of it,

But the postponed malice was greater.

Its poison pungent.

Enamoring Quality represented South Florida in the American Chemical Society Illustrated Poem Contest