"BEFORE ATTENTION TURNED TO YOU"

is a poem that had the fortune to blossom through Jean Vengua's attention, reading and engagement. Thank you, Jean, for this -- and I love the more-than-postscript presence of your Gracie The Gracious Pitbull:



I wrote this poem (which rears its nerved-up head in The Blind Chatelaine's Keys) for Andrew Lundwall who's been a supportive poet-editor presence. Thank you, Andrew!

Jean's reading works on its own, but I happened to have the YouTUBE audio playing against John William's version of "I Dreamed A Dream" from Les Miserables and -- how apt! -- it works, too!

(Last but never least, thanks to Gura Michelle for teaching me how to embed a YouTUBE-y thingie on moi luddite blog!)