Number 7

Tomorrow?
Well... Hello July.
My oh my,
How the times do fly...

Modern Living

My day's routine
Starts with some
Carbos and caffeine,
The rest then spent
Staring at a screen...

Bug Power

A cockroach, appearing suddenly,
At the right moment, in time and space,
Can compel certain kinds of people
To scream and jump all over the place.

How Things Work

You go to work and learn
What they did not teach
You in school, and you earn
Money, and maybe reach
A point where you do not
Have to toil any more,
And take the savings you got,
Back to where you were before,
Without a care or thought
Of what the next day had in store.

Drag Racer

I only feel alive
When I drive,

Motion and speed
Fill my need,

Stay slow and still,
I never will...

Dilemma

Not being able to sleep,
I pour whisky into a cup,
Drink it, and start to snooze,
But then I can't wake up...

Platte River Epiphany

A calming country morning,
And the watery reflection
Is a transient reminder of
Nature's quiet perfection.

Photograph by Geoffrey M. Hamilton, 1955-2011 

 

Metrics

Standing, disappointed, on the scales,
And I know it does not lie,
Still, I move it to a different spot,
And then give it another try.

OMG!

At first, disbelief, quickly followed
By pure panic and distress,
When she discovers, much too late,
She no longer fits in her party dress.

This Won't Hurt

Pain is unambiguous, fundamental,
And usually has something
To do with dental.

Uncatchable

Fantastic, fabulous dreams,
Flicker, evade, and elude
Memory's attempted grasp,
As waking and light intrude
Into the manic-magical dark,
Now turning dreary gray,
With the approach of a day,
Visceral, amazing dreams
Escaping, vaporing away...

Why We Get High

Young adults, desperately
Afraid of being bored,
Assume there's a place
Where pleasure is stored,
And available, on demand,
To sedate and defray,
The nauseous tedium
Of each unexciting day,
To scratch an existential
Itch, which doesn't go away...

Extra-Sensory

The dream woke me up,
By telling me a story,
Which was dramatic,
Downright hallucinatory,
And, now lying awake,
I remain dumbfounded by
The mischief dreams make...

Unfinished Business

It's all coming undone, that which we paid for
In blood in the pitiless dust and heat of Iraq,
Terrorists, fundamentalist, Sunnis and whoever
Are killing and moving south on the attack,
While I'm out of the Army, back in Omaha,
Borderline PTSD, paid to put food in a sack,
At a supermarket full of soft and unknowing
Overweight suburbanite souls who lack
The sense to know I am a weapon, trained to
Kill bad guys in the sand-box ... I need to go back.

夏至 ＧＥＳＨＩ

All the noise, and banal or deadly distractions,
Dissemble, deflect, and obfuscate that it is here,
Arrived to shine on us, bathe us in its light,
Solstice returned, the longest day of the year.

By Mark Harm Niemeyer

The Source Of The Problem

I am a single, desperate, virgin male,
Unsatisfied and angry, I give my soul
To the desert god, and gladly assail
Infidels, and shameless women, who
Must be mercilessly put in their place,
As willed by god, and if they resist,
I will destroy them, by god's grace.

Cogito Ergo Sum

Not matter what you think, or say,
We are products less of free will,
And more of DNA.

Kami 神

Consider it odd, if you may,
But our belief in gods does
Not mean they have a say,
The gods, over the moral
Choices we make every day,
No, the gods just exist,
Like mountains and trees,
Mysterious as a forest mist,
Touching us, as they please.

Spring Fever

I feel giddy, things seem more crisp and real
Than usual, as a fresh breeze tickles the green
All around me, trees and plants all renewed
And dancing to melodies unheard, unseen;
What is this strange energy? -- Caused by
Lower humidity, or a natural caffeine?
I wish I could capture and package it for
Consumption, if you know what I mean...

 

World Cup

Long-contained feelings freed
And going up, up, up,
It's time, my friend,
For the soccer World Cup

Everyone's been waiting
Through the past four years,
For victory's joy,
Or defeat, and tears.

All of it focused on a ball
Kicked up and around,
And into space, and into a
Net, at the end of the ground.

Walk Like A Japanese

Purposeful Japanese people walking,
Perfectionists in navy, black, and gray,
Each carrying the weight of their
Ancient tribe, in a Japanese way.

Diligent Japanese people talking,
In controlled and quiet tones,
All crowded on verdant islands,
Home to gods and ancestors’ bones.

Quiet Japanese people stalking,
In moments short and rare,
Happiness, hidden somewhere deep
In the conformity they share.

Sayonara Misplaced

Caught up completely
In the sequence and flow,
Of the things we started,
Thereafter failing to know,
Before you departed,
That it could not come again,
The chance to say good bye,
Lost, some where and when...

Sad & Wasteful In Afghanistan

Under attack, the foot-soldiers
Called for help from the flier,
To kill the Taliban attackers
Outside the compound wire,
But chaos combined with
Rotten luck to conspire
To destroy the foot-soldiers
Through friendly fire...

Also called "Blue on Blue",
That they were all doomed,
The kids never knew...

Imperfection

Pretty much all about
Him she adores,
Except for the fact
That he snores.

Rainy Season Gems

Arches and bending bows
Formed by the long grass,
Bejeweled with water drops,
As the gray clouds pass.