House of Music

Our house is alive 
with your classic piano pieces
and Maxwell's electric guitar.

So far, I find it 
entirely tolerable. To be honest, 
I cherish every chord.

I am not pulling my hair out
or shoving cotton in my ears,
as predicted, 

because 
“Air on the G String” has more to offer
than calm perspective. And 

a house filled with music
has always helped to silence
my mind's buzzing hive.


-

"House of Music" is published in the Summer 2021 (Vol. 47, No. 2) issue of California Quarterly.

Eric 

The Myth of Mulberries

My mother is picking mulberries again.

Yes, the real thing. I know 

I always thought they were mythical

and that they grew on bushes only

in children’s books and nursery rhymes, 

exalted every May Day

and used to teach children

basic hygiene and household chores 

in melody.

The ripe ones are edible, you know,

and they grow in huge trees.

Who would have thought it? Not I. They are

baked into 4th-of-July firecracker pies

and used to add tartness to tea.  

But unripe mulberries are toxic

and can cause wild hallucinations—

a fairytale poison apple,

the big bad wolf and pixie dust.

Children’s books do not teach us that.

Yet, this is the truth about mulberries.

-

"The Myth of Mulberries" is published in the 2020 Winter Issue of Poetry Quarterly.

Eric