OTHER WRITING

THE SUNFLOWER PATCH

Finalist: Eastern Shore Writers Association 2023 Crossroads Poetry Micro Fiction Contest—July 2023

Plead peace as our prologue, not our past

The delicate ginkgo leaf lifted and

spiraled to rest in a sunflower patch

in graceful Hiroshima, before the

Atomic bomb wrought profound misery

Enola Gay had fate in her belly

Plead peace as our prologue, not our past

Her mission to destroy the enemy,

bring the Japanese to their knees, and show

the world its unimaginable might

Unsuspecting people in daily flow

Elders rubbed their arthritic, fragile bones

Plead peace as our prologue, not our past

School children honored their Emperor while

toddlers played and newborns took final breaths

Little Boy flashed sinister white light and

shock waves of energy roared at twice the force of gravity

Seventy thousand people vanished or charred to instant death

Plead peace as our prologue, not our past

Black rain fell, rivers beckoned more corpses

Fire engulfed the once dynamic city

The ginkgo leaf perished alongside the

scorched and blackened sunflowers, while tens of

thousands of innocent souls departed

Plead peace as our prologue, not our past

HOW THE HISTORY OF NUCLEAR VIOLENCE SHAPES OUR PRESENT

CrimeReads—July 21, 2023

AUTHORING A FAMILY STORY

The Writer’s Center Magazine—Summer 2023

FINDING VALUE IN LITERARY CITIZENSHIP

Women’s Writing—March 23, 2023

FIVE INSPIRING JAPANESE AMERICAN WWII NOVELS

When Women Inspire—May 2023

FIVE THINGS YOU NEED TO BE A SUCCESSFUL AUTHOR OR WRITER

Authority Magazine—March 22, 2023