The Long Hug

They hold each other closely, desperately,
As if to stop time, totally entrapped
By mutual emotion, and being so different,
They imagine love will bridge and adapt,

And they look for signs of this hope
In each other's mating-fevered face,
But do not dwell on it, for now it's
Enough to be lost in their embrace...

Hair Of The Dog

I drink an ice cold beer,
Fizzy and bracing,
Instantly altering,
Softening, and erasing,
The head-hurting legacy
Of a lost night's debasing...

After The Festival

The lantern dances have been
Disassembled and stored
By the recent celebrants
Who, now idled and bored,
Consider the matte bleak
Days ahead, summer exhausting
It self, week after week,
The green explosions of
Vernal green turning dun
In a languid humid transition
Under the late August sun...

Ended Too Soon

Leaving the mountains behind,
We stream, a river of headlights,
Slowly and steadily, in a mind
Boggling, spirit-numbing traffic
Jam, headed back to the grind...

Go-Nin-Gumi 五人組

You watch me
And I watch you,
What you say
And what you do.

And if I detect
Your slip or sin,
I call the Lord
And turn you in.

There's no escape,
There is no end,
The Shogun's rules
Will never bend.

Perched Slumber

The seahawk, head tucked
Into shoulder, sleeps
Balanced on the storm wall,
And I wonder how it keeps
From taking a fall...

Cairo, Egypt, August 2013

The teargas cannister comes bouncing along
The pavement, angrily spouting smoke
Which billows to cause gagging, and a strong
Urge to cough, and vomit out more hate,
Reinforcing why we are here in the first
Place, tearing up the same pavement to throw
Chunks of it at them, who are the worst
Aggressors and infidels, and cannot be allowed
To avoid exposure to our rage, and thirst
For revenge on this manic bloody day,
All of us gathered in the thrill of it all,
And we don't have jobs to go to anyway...

 

I Should Be Sleeping

I look at the clock showing 3:33
And realize I should be sleeping,
Vice pounding the keyboard assiduously,
In an early morning haze, keeping
Sure that it is all meaningful toward
Some sort of conclusion and cause,
Vice insomnia, and the intricate ways
That cause sweet slumber to pause...

Put It Down, Turn It Off

Through each day, in seemingly
Endless succession,  parade
The stupid, horrendous things,
And the rest of the cavalcade
Of crap the newscast brings,
Accidents and tragedies made
Into stories for money, and to feed
Our covert voyeuristic hunger the
Junk-food data we didn't really need.

It Happened Last Night

Emerging from the depths of a lost
Night, and I wonder what I did,
But I cannot remember clearly, so
I guess I will just blame it on my id.

7 August, Risshu 立秋

Although it doesn't feel like it at all,
Still humid-hot and insect-noisy,
Risshu is the first day of Fall,
Solar angles now minutely shifted
Inexorably toward winter,  
While heat's burden remains unlifted.

An Approach To What Approacheth

Not to get too
Caught-up,
Is the key,
To dealing
With mortality,
Just go with the flow
Inevitably...

Shochu Highball

It becomes important and compelling
To consider the sky,
And wonder why,
In this altered state of mind,
After a fourth Chu-Hai...

From My Room

The view from my room is limited
By ceiling, floor, and  four walls,
Yet I don't feel trapped or inhibited,
Because there's something that enthralls
And stimulates from an engine inside
My head, a kaleidoscope of ideas and
Images, which launch-up and glide
In altitudes I have yet to understand,
And I hug the hope they provide...

Waiting For The Storm

Way up above, where convection forms
And mixes the cool and warm moist air
Into looming, magnificent thunderstorms,
It's all I can do to wait and wonder where,
And if, and when, the meteorological drama
Of monster rains and lightning's flare
Will strike and pass, and then leave a cooling
Breath of relief in answer to my sweaty prayer.

Sound Trucks Of Summer's Peak

Today, a few days before the anniversary of Japan's
Defeat, the right-winger trucks are cruising around
The neighborhood, blaring martial music and filling
The summer day with their angry nationalist sound,
Trying to resurrect, I suppose, lost pride and glory
And Imperial lust, best left buried in the ground...

 
 

Koshien Summer Baseball Tournament

They arch backwards, faces streaked with sweat,
Uniforms stained brown with Koshien dirt
And under the fierce August sun they forget
The sweltering humid heat, as they shout
The words to their school song blaring out
From the stadium speakers, the heated
Contest finished, the winners stand and sing,
While lined-up behind them, the defeated
Team fights back the tears their feelings bring.

Take Cover

It's all good, crowded here
In the cool department store,
On the hottest day of the year...

Adagio Sostenuto

I feel for Rachmaninov,
Who produced the best
Beautiful music ever,
In the surreal, blessed,
And haunting tunes of
His Second Concerto,
Melodies wafting way above
The normal we know,
Bringing drama and feeling
Especially the second movement,
Which leaves me reeling
And sympathizing for
Rachmaninov, because his best
Boiled down to Adagio Sostenuto,
And damned be the rest.

Gyokusai 玉砕

Attu Island, 1943, and two thousand
Six hundred Japanese troops
Were informed by the General
Staff in Tokyo that, Whoops!
We can no longer send you
Supplies or ammunition, so
Instead, you are expected to do
Your duty for the Emperor,
Attack the Americans and die,
You will be called "crushed jewels"
Who didn't flich, or wonder why
You, as warrior-sharpened tools
Of an Imperial dream, were callously
Abandoned, all tragic-heroic fools...

Aerial Mishap

Through the open door of the stopped train
Wings a small moth, and I can't stop keeping
From watching it do its insect aerobatics and then
Flutter into the open mouth of a man sleeping.

Arirang 2013

Hundreds of Asian girls, in sailor suits,
Playing drums, all wearing boots,
As part of a passion show
To honor a dictator, would seem
Like something out of a very weird dream,
But there they are, in vibrant flesh,
The pride of a crackpot Korean regime...

Red, White, And Blue

In God We Trust,
And, after all the
Others have rushed
For the exit, we will endure,
We will not be crushed,
For the stakes are too high,
And we'll fight, if we must,
For freedom, and grind
Our enemies into the dust.

Galactic Chill

Pausing, to breath, and stare skyward,
After a long, hot, hard-assed day,
A sense of cosmic perspective
Cools me, gazing at the Milky Way...

The Unbowed

Toward the finish line, the winning runner
Surges, victorious muscles in motion,
And after the race, as the first place guy
Is feted and crowned, I have this notion
To look instead at those who gave it a try,
But finished fifth, fourth, and third,
Their faces shine with energy, not defeat,
And they strut away, without saying a word.