The Tule Review heralds from Sacramento, California, and published my poem Second Christmas Absent My Father in the Winter 2008 edition. You can check out the Sacramento Poetry Center, at their website: www.sacramentopoetrycenter.org
Here's the poem:
Second Christmas Absent My Father
Santa Cruz, California 2003
Palm trees in the grey drizzle, looking sheepish.
Beach volleyball courts circled round by mounds of sand
bulldozed against the coming storm. Across the street,
stores advertise bikinis, sunglasses, sandals, shorts—
the blue lifeguard towers stand just as vacant, staring out to sea.
There is an allure to emptiness, making room.
Yesterday, the Pacific tectonic plate pushed under
the North American again, raising the coastal mountains
almost a foot. In Paso Robles, another clock tower,
another historic brick building fell, killing two.
One thing shifts into another, pushing continents,
pushing time forward. I feel myself exhale, impatient
to get home, let my children tumble me to the floor
before we forget such things are possible.
Tonight, my sister arrives from Hawaii for the holidays,
joining mother, my two brothers. Sometimes there is so much
longing: tangled, rooted, hungry. I will take them downtown,
show them restored buildings from our own quake,
the new mixed with the old, sturdier. Show them
the ceramic surf-Santa that looks like dad—
how he whispered to me, cruising in the Woody,
surfboard stuck out the top, whistling a tune
impossible to name.