The significance of age 60 / Is to be young again / Without the weight of youth / So it is with Barack Obama.

Known simply as Esther / A runaway slave in 1743 / Sought to be free / By riding the “freedom train” / Where fantasy meets reality / Of a Harriet Tubman dream.

Doors open wide / To horizon’s illusions / Of noble ideals / “Independence,” equality,” / “Freedom,” and “justice”

Juneteenth and Father’s Day
Third week of June
A double celebration
Of fathers we know
And those liberated
Over a hundred years ago
On Juneteenth
Marking the end of slavery
When men were encouraged
To breed
And not be fathers
In the paternal sense
Of nurturing a child
A form of fatherhood
Not to be celebrated
But remembered
On Juneteenth
As inspirational for all
Denied reciprocal love
Between father and child

Wonders of pollination / Bees buzzing to songs / Hummingbirds sing / In harmony / To the percussion / Of butterfly wings