I am yelly You're a fat Hampton lady,she thinks we're scamming /trying to get our check before our time we return to Shipwreck a long deer path to the ocean the shells are small red sea roses line the sand the Pine Cones are small and on the needled trees the water is bright blue who has the control the one who doesn't answer the holder of money the miniature furniture on the roadside and the hungry faces of sportscar freaks our Bronx Apt welcomes all who enter who has the control

Poems by Francy Stoller: Tiny Tasha piece/ for Steve who makes me laugh

Poems by Francy Stoller: Tiny Tasha piece/ for Steve who makes me laugh: eye of wave / salt / smile /undertow / and dive //die / and return to the sea live the bracelet / the drift wood stick / making me feel sorr...

s upThe Lost Angel of the Northland

A little girl
wonders
why don't
they like me
Is is the way my hair curls
From now on I'm
gonna speak my mind
no more hiding in the corner
crying
This is it
speak it
or beat it

Things are never as good as you'd like them-they're better

Another scircher in the Bay-Gonna take down the curtains and have a sun bath-There is no telling how long we've loved like this-the strawberry patch is nearly nineteen years old-the bears never come out because they're scared- I've watched so many Father Knows Best-that O think I'm Cathy-the trouble with getting old is that you think you know everything-I've come full circle this tome-another year might not be in the cards- I could lay down and not wake up-

The Buzzaround town is that the Kids are coming-all nine-Let me take a minute to prepare

They call it the pscychotic break
when one goes too far
out on a limb
I Conked out a lil' while ago
couldn't tewll why
there was a space on the mantle
caise I was holding the GingerPot
Call me lame
of another planet
I see the svene
unfolding
the yellow plastic Daisies
on the table
bird in a cage
All ways someone telling you
I'm outta line
you stuck w/the kids
like I said
we never planned for the roof
to cave in
shit happens

One time I Escape/You are Pssed-They say to not go Up-there is Danger Ahead

I Chant
A hoo A hoo
Oh time to winch the Wagon to the ole car hitch
There is room for the older ones
but the Song birds are not
permitted in the second cabin
leaves between my ties
like they tell the girls
Beware-the Dark Forest
has a million eyes staring
at you
Take the Chines Embroidered purse it's my design
and the Sewing Mags
but if you sleep with my Man again
I'll kill you
the shell positioned in the Living Room floor
Have the Rockaway Sand thick like powder
crunching the already convoluted scent of years
of scavanging thru old houses
and the tale of three blind mice
wash my blood w/yours
the stain cannot say whose fault
the Umbrellas are up-the Wire is cut
E.C and Gregory have danced w/me
the two-step I know
carries me hime
Tra La La La

Scrolling down for The Last Time

The baby is hidden/maybe behind a curtain-I'm not going this time-it's your affair and has to be private. There is a scathing riff between the families-about money I presume,there is none-we've been to the Village elders just like you wanted and this time there is no going back. An ilder adult son is in the house/he's hiding the family jewels.All I need is one of those plastic whirligigs that let you hang the infant clothes on-I'll run to the wash-house-but flat doesn't do it-spin pale blue/pink/yellow/white-come on-six bucks and a a quarter tip for the guy without legs and the pertpetual smile who hangs out in front of the Retail Market.

the lessening of the agenda/the elder prepares for Shabbos

I am up near the clouds on a high rock cliff/I am your bride/the daisy crown is on my veil/the pale yellow pumps I dyed for the occasion are slipping in the rugged terrain/lace around my body/a bouquet of gladiolas/red/white/pink/lilac are stationed in my hands / no one seems to be here/your serape/embroidered silk threads is blowing in the slight wind/we have taken the vows but no one seems to be here

Been to Paradox/past Eagle Lake

Follow the scent of fresh spruce/ hold each other tightly
the horses are tan
ned and spotted
the air is fresh

Racism in The Twenty-First Century

what a fool we are to racial profile for poverty too

Getting Around The Mulberry Bush/Or when You Can't Wake Up and You Can't Sleep

• There's this adage that says When the Work's done it's done/when you're dead/you're dead/this spasmadic life keeps feeding me sour grapes/my ole raggedy poems look like dung/I come back to the jealousy issue/the feminine issue/things that I'm afraid to look straight in the eyes...Why did I feel like all life's about is love/you have to do your work and I mine/just because I never get paid like you do/we set it up this way/one money/one love....

On Racism and our trip to NOLA/right before Katrina

• 
  
  Boy did it feel white in the French Quarter/Steve got so much attention/I felt like everyone knew him. People didn't stop warning us not to go out in to the wards/we would get beat. We're from the Bronx/we said..It's a mess up in here. Then Katrina/safely back in the Bronx/we watch T.V./actually we just heard the news from Upland/and from the kids who were glued/thinking about how lucky we were to have missed the hurricane by one week.In these cases it is a miscarriage of the Press presenting a thoroughly corrupt vision of how profiled the African Americans were presented with their flesh still fresh floating in the canals and in the gutter.

We've been away so long it feels like home

• Babies/everywhere/pictures and crawling/creeping/I have come full circle. Today Indy goes under to get a filling posted/we snuggle round the spin-off/eat knishes in Brooklyn with Jacki and Moe/late Passover celebration. We are going nowhere really/the work is piling up and we cannot keep up with ourselves.

The Passover of 2010/We are finding a way

I remember when the kids are young and I'd be up waiting for them to rise. It is such a sweet time/now I have that time constantly/the no wait/the projects/ the getting ready to leave the house. The rumination/the re-evaluation of my work/the writing/the community involvement/I look to the mirror of life.

• We can find the ability to see us from the outside/to view ourselves as others do/the gypsy fight to survive in a world which praises possessions/not art.We have the art and family to create security. I walk West to where the dead pigeons lay/see the sun sets as my heart fetters to keep beating.

Washington Street/Mother Cabrini High School

• She's wearing a red coat,the church lady said to her one-way walkie talkie/Dad just stayed in his pew genuflecting/there is no way out/a shrine w/ gold icons/no Torah cabinet.

Green water in the canal/rippling ice/Melisa growing/her baby smiling/the life of the artist is continuing to be interesting despite the frustration o

of flowers grown in the the snow/yellow Marigolds/Where are the Hyacinth bulbs. The plaster statues and McCoy cookie jars sit nicely on the card-table/an era of creating Steve's second novel The Poet is complete/4000 hrs of typing in the pappersroon with no heat in -30/and the rewriting in the most vicarious of situations/no money stashed for a rainyday/no comfort as the parents used to say/just the kids/calling and padding our palms with shekels/a hard reciprocation for forty years of pain/struggle and humiliation/I am now at Social Services receiving my pension plan-$240.00 a month for the rest of my days awarded monthly/I can't wait for the first installment. There are women here who get cash payouts/(I wonder how you get that) one lady is counting her $67.98. The street yield an kind of rough torrent. I stood in Barnes'n Nobles and read Ina May Gaskin's new book on home birth Csections/ now at night I hold my belly and wonder how deep one must cut right above the pubis to pull the baby out/the umbilicus long and white like those carnival balloons one makes crowns or Poodles out of twisting them.

What can be said that hasn't already been rehashed

• We triffled through this sequence/you drew for seventy hours and I sat in the cold room and flipped through poems/trying to find one extraordinary piece to publish in this year's edition of "Frost". The children scrapped around working to their capacity/earning prestige and honors from their perspective fields. We wanted to all be together for one night but the hotel refused us/No bohemian blood allowed here/If the parents have ever been involved with long-haired activities/they are not welcome. And so we keep running.

Christmas in New York/the baby's here and we are looking out nto a new horizon

• We reach for the pills,they are in a glass bowl on the stove/a bug is imprinted in cut glass on the bottom. You take five and I take five/they're low-grade so we will just sleep more soundly/probably just hear the phone ring in the parlor. We haven't gone to this extent ever/breakfast dishes still in the sink/we seem to be out of hope/a great fear hounds us/we've run this course before/the account reads .00 and the children are all on their feet/we are in every one's way/our language has been reduced to drivel. When the end of O'Bama's term we will have crossed over/we want to let go/but Melisa is having a baby in the Spring and our eighth grandchild is on its' way/we will be there with bells on and a song in our hearts/then we'll see.

HOW LONG DO WE HAVE TO WAIT for Christmas

This semester has been complicated by our traveling in space/It tries our nerves to succumb to the rigors of the twenty-first/damn we have been to the other side of reality once too often/the grandchildren have checked in/Nathan especially takes care of us. His sweet nature exhibits the best of both his parents. We kiss our girl Indiana Capri and she knows exactly who we are/Ahdy shyly looks back at us and pretends that he is a new kid on the block/this princess Siena knows when we need attention/she calls with loving concern/Tomorrow is Elizabeth Rose's birthday/she has almost found herself/and she is not ten yet/Our darling Gabrielle e-mails in the knick of time,"Call me, I need to touch base."In Borough Park a miracle baby is born,our Ariella Isabel/she is a young warrior/she has the baton/and knows the dove's language/the poems/the songs/we will carry her to Mecca/wrapped in a Palestinian scarf/her Jewish core can stop a million year war. I love the life/the street/the fight/the grand granjetes'But don't believe that this huge trial I've been in/there are no answers/no judgements/

The train is here/but we are not ready/been a long time since we took this highway

• From the time we left the area till now there have been no guarantees/we have learned everything as we have gone along/what you didn't know/I did/and vice versa/ This process has worked/there are individual signs of complete accomplishment. Your work adorns the homes of the people who have found it necessary to collect it. We by inference/ are also hanging along with the paintings. This alone has been a perfect trip.

The Fall creeps in like a mother lion/we wait for an opportunity to socialize about art

• We return to the Bronx and try to get things rolling. We submit our work for publication and a record rejection comes flying back. We maintain a kind of status quo/ you get out to paint/I ruminate/we meet at a certain point in time.

Close the door on unanswered questions/be swift and courteous

• 
  
  The show has come to an end. The last poppy dry on the vine. I am rattled /my love is overflowing and the geraniums are frosting up in these cool Adirondack seasons. We have been to the western tip of New York for a get-together with old friends. We sit in a cafe and drink pina colada/rap about the ole days. You were so beautiful to bring me to this reunion. The dog runs
  

  on

  the beach and we lay in each other's arms and pray for the grandchildren .

CNN/NPR/BMI/ABC/CBS/lET'S HAVE A PARTY

1. Did you say That I WRITE TO HEAR MYSELF THINK/THERE is no other way at this point/a woman calls from another time/she remembers us/ how can the universe be turning at this phenomenal pace that all the minds are thinking and creating ideas which meet at one point. This point of recognition burns to be identified. THE rest remains deep secret.

We are in unchartered territory/ there is no cushion holding us up/we never planned anything

• I was a young girl running in the street/standing on lines for auditions/ I lived with very little until I hooked up with Steve. He offered me eternal love/ a kind of comfort which created my interior strength/ This program has no design/it's self-appropriated/ For forty years I have listened to my own heart/to the birds/watched the grass grow and developed a system of survival.

We are leaving for awhile/the hood oven from the restaurant downstairs has begun its days duty

• FOR A LONG TIME NOW IT HAS BEEN DIFFICULT FOR US TO RELATE TO THE next door neighbors. They leave little notes under our door and bring over cakes and pies in the evening. We continue to go about our business,never thanking them or honoring their advances. they both work at the

  hospital around the corner.

I see the ducks on the water/you held my arm and told me secrets about the children's longings

1. 
   
   We crawled to Taos again/ The poets were waiting/ It's as if they never left the stage area. They wanted me to stay in town d=for a special performance of the first and third manuscripts/ I
   

   
   

   declined saying that it 's harvest time upstate and that the apples were waiting for us.

this proud gram wishes to leave the state/it is over the top that which i TAKE MY WAGON AND HITCH IT RIGHT TO A STAR

• The camp sits back from the lake. The rolli

  ng hill in front of the cabin and trailer are made for dreaming. I SET THE PICNIC TABLES FOR SIX AND CLIMB INTO THE LOFT FOR a long nap. The children will be finishing up their chores in about an hour and the roast chicken has only to sit in its' juices.

Go get um tiger/this narrow view I take to the grave/whose I ask

Mama's got a brand new pair of roller blades/time to prepare /the last lap/fearless as the mountain lion creeping up the wall/the bear in the woods who Elizabeth surprised/ and my darling Steve full of surprises/imagination and the will to eat cereal. One daY WE SHALL ALL GO HOME/ WITH BROILERS AND potaoe chips/pickles and

traveling through space and time/I really can't pinpoint when I've been this happy

The money arrived on time. We pay the taxes and begin to re-organize ourselves for another sale of art. The pump prices are back up/ food is soaring and the wolf tears at our son's door. This confusion leads to distention of my limbs and a human desire to consume. New York has been a jumping off place/the fine liberal folk have understood at least that we suffer a general malaise when it comes to survival in art/their hearts go out to us. It's jump/dance/kick and holler.

a splendid morning for a hike up the mountain/iT IS TIME TO GO BACK TO THE CITY/the rain stopped/all the children have checked in today/FATHER'S day

• Just a twenty dollar party/ you bring the beer/ we sit in the underbelly of this whale/crying to

  get out/

JUNE 18/tHE North COUNTRY/ TGHE WOlD's getting colder/ I did it for the money

1. I WANT IT TO WORK/FOR ME TO CONTINUE DOING THE WORK/to embrace life like a birthday party/to fall out at night without a care in the world/ to step it up/two-step/do the frugal thing/ but something is creating discord/a loose wire in the system/a short-circuit/a poet lives inside me/and it hurts.....

where the KUDSU VINES hang like / a flashback / 1977 monsterslike back /10709

• GRADY HELPED US PUT IN A WINDOW/SO THE MORNING LIGHT COULD SHINE /a glass blower lived down the road / we4 gave Grady $5.00 for rent/ and then while feeding his dog /he must have had a heart attack/ fell and hit his head on a plow near the smoke house/he died

WHERE AREYOU going my ancient lover/ eyes and arms reach out to me

• the sign was you / who pushed the stick / through the fence /standing offence / a butterfly taps a

  gainst the window /we do the pony / somewhere between the blues and hip-hop/

When the paint flows/let it go / we won't give up / and the world will not give in to us

• THERE'LL BE NO DINNER TONIGHT / OR TOMORROW /JUST MEMORIES of babies being born /and growing/ like tadpoles /my idea/ was to let each of the children know what I know/ then/ let them go

We are in the Adirondack Mountains/ we love the acquired possessions / the art /the memories

• IT'S A COUNTRY QUIET /a bride / a bird's chorus /a buzz of metal chatter

1990/jot on a piece of notebook paper

• Classism /my shoes /hair/nails /skin /fingers / hard yellow broken /torn

WATKINSVILLE,Ga. /we live in a slave shack/one room /with wild roses wrapping around /a stone fireplace /one one year Steve paints in an old barn

• Now that Grady's dead/ we'll pay you a dollar a month to clean his gravesite / Steve and Francy/you'll get a half gallon of buttermilk to wash the holiday dishes and make mama's bed. Free rent/our rent had been five dollars..

early WHITEHALL/ CARDS HAS BEWEN A FOCUS /DISTRACTION FOR ME

• solitaire /flip card /spread seven /staCK / RESTACK /SLIDE THE ACES /FLIP T

  HREE /STACK /SLIDE ACE UP.......

Bayside/I ACCOMPANY MY HUSBAND TO WORK

1. Cemetary/I am sitting on a brown plastic pillow / scattered are rusty nails / THE DOOR TO THIS STONE MASALEUM /HAS BEEN OPENED BY VANDALS / STONE COLUMNS REACH UP /YELLOW FRUITY FLOWERS BETWEEN THE GRAVES / Here the living are enhanced by the dead / SOME of the earth is spongy / a fresh gravesite /my namesake /Fanny/ an unmarked mauseleum / THE BUDDING / the spring /NEW YORK JEWS /IVY/violets/roses /grown over earth /rest in peace/fallen markers/ sticks and twigs /I RUN THROUGH the fallen markers trey to get lost in the quiet /and away from ROBERT THE GUY WHO CARE FOR THE PLACE /he plays old rock'n roll songs on an old boonbox.......

year 2000 /Pablo decides to move back to New York but it will take a few years

• 
  
  Our eldest son visaits / his financial vision / seers / the stubble of our stumbling dilema / He feeds us rice / in white Chinese restaurant / He is good / and strong / We have given him the right recipe for good living / He appreciated this/ with a simple ''Thank-you''
  

around 2004 /just a note to myself / after fishing at the bay

THE allusiona IS REAL / and reality is the allusion

There is a condemned house in the back / a mountain lion clims the wall / I CLIMBED THE HILL TO GET SOME IRIS

1. old issues appear like lost shoes

This Land Is your land / 9/11 / I heard the first boom and the second one two

mY CIG SPARKS AT 2am /I SEE IT THERE /A PYROTECHNIC SKY / kazalacstan / ubeckestan / turmenistan /tan /tan /tan America writhes/IRAQ ONE million dead / now KABUL / kandahar / a cave with the big KAHUNA / FRONT MIKE /TIMEX WATCH / A HUMANITARIAN STRIKE /ECONOMIC PLY / TO BUY MORE FIBEROPTICS / /ANTIBIOTICS /RAMADAN /CARROT AND STICK / tOMAHAWK Mssiles / we are all homeless / sleeping at the entrance to the towers / Who will hold the firefighters hands now / that the smoke has cleared

FALLEN OFF Battleground /my epic poem /Roy and Bessie

1. Three times a year they slaughter a pig / drunk with meat they warap three small parcels of fatback for the neighbors.

1995 /DAY OF GIBERTO SALE /TO JERRY /A PAINTING MADE IN MEXICO cITY

1. tHE SETTING UP /THE TEARING DOWN / IT'S A REGULAR THING / iN IT'S WAY /it's formal /there is large play going on all night on the street /this calm won't last / the sound of summer on the wane / Heah for this lofe / Ohm Shanti / I CAN ONLY DREAM OF CHARGING UP mOTT. street / feet torn / looking deeply into the blue of your eyes / you looking back into you

   r own soul......

2003 / an old railroad town 25 miles from the nearest big town supermarket

1. We sold the house /bought Whitehall /unpacked the belongings / took the train to the city / took the train back upstate / I am still fighting the same demons I fought last year....

baby girl visits from Manhattan / DON'T FORGET TO MINIMIZE ,SHE SAYS

• We sit on the stoop of an abandoned apartment building. The sun is setting over the Hudson River. We want to go in to the building but we are waiting for dad to finish up . He has been painting most of the day. We taLK IN SOFT VOICES / OUR HAIR IS JOSTLED AND WE HAVE NOT EATEN ALL DAY. It is 1979 and you want to ride your bigwheel.

BUCKLE up America /wE'RE IN WAR

• tHE COWS GONE IN TO EAT ........yOU PAINTING OUTDOORS/ten below zero / powder puff blue sky/ far from the city clang /mamas sittin' on the train / pistol whipped children /a cloud passes over ball of sun /snow on top of the mountain / the wild crow caws / we/whipped against the pines....

SONG oF sARA /POEM IN PROGRESS .STARTED 2006

• two withdrawing on thew M103-----aRE YOU COMING HOME WITH ME -I guess so /If you don't talk to those men / Where are we getting off I don't want to buy you those earings /You just use me for a place to sleep /Both faces are swollen /They are screaming /Their tone is getting people sitting around them annoyed /Thank-you for that /yOU JUST LOVE ME FOR MY MY MONEY/yOU THINK THAT i WILL Buy you anything you want /Do I have to but those earings ?I am not going to buy you anything if you don't behave. WHO PAID FOR THE DRINKS AT THAT BAR /i PAY FOR EVERYTHING i OWN YOU /WILL you come home with me / If you don't attract attention when we go in /I'll stay with you / I love you Sara /iN cHINATOWN DO YOU WANT TO GET OFF /i know where they have those earings / Are you coming home with me /dO YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHERE WE'RE GOING IN cHINATOWN /sHE KEPT HER EYES CLOSED A LOT /hE WAS BALD WITH A LONG PONYTAIL..

glens falls ,N.Y. , supermarket ;2008

• A BLACK WOMAN IS GETTING IN TO CAR;HER JAW IS SQUARED ; I nod;she nods ,It is O.k. that I AM NOT PREDJUDICED /AS ALWAYS / SHE GIVES ME THE a.o.k.