Silent scream for a dollar

Sometimes you contain it
it reverberates through your bones and blood
blood brewing, boiling, bubbling,
bubbling over into conscious asphyxiation and a gasp--

gasp for air

air enters your lungs but the breath is shallow
(shallow drowning is the worst kind)

kind enough to smile at the crack of dawn
dawn on you yet that at dusk, you can't hide the fury in your face,
face the inane conversation at the dinner table,
table the issue of what's cracking you?

You sometimes can't contain it
it reverberates through your teeth
teeth grinding at the letters scrawled on the check
check your math but not your temper
temper your voice about a billing mistake
mistake the waitress's ambivalence for malice

malice escapes as the tone of your voice
voice your complaint bitterly and the battle is lost

lost twenty pesos for no fault of your own
own your frustration and let it spread,
spread through your blood and your bones.

Metamorphosis

Once she dreamed of Baucis and Philemon:
the intertwined branches of two lovers immortalized as
the oak and the linden, in vibrant embrace
shimmering golden leaves brimming with life in the wake of an angry destruction.

Time ticked and tocked its way through xylem and phloem
and her own roots grew deeper into the earth.
The hope turned to sadness to anger
and back to hope again
and then all emotions oozed out as sap.

Wind will rip her leaves away,
locusts will descend upon her trunk,
their dead shells will stain her bark,
even if she gives the gods the wine and the goose.

It's still possible to stand tall and weathered
with a heart that pumps from empty veins.