Lazy Caveman

There was a time when,
If you wanted to eat,
You had to go out
And kill for your meat,
Or otherwise scrounge
For plants in the dirt,
Or lie back and lounge,
Ignoring the hurt
In your empty gut,
Waiting for women
To bring roots to your hut.

Darwinian

Listen to the sound
Of Nature, accept
What comes around,
Adapt, if you can,
To life being harder
Than when it began.

Rolling Stones, Narita, 2014

The rickety old rock-n-rollers,
Show up on the tarmac in Tokyo,
For their guaranteed paycheck
From adoring fans who know
They are geriatric, but choose,
Instead, to remember the glow
Of a past they must not lose.

Trans-Pacific Partnership

The idea is to get to yes, or no,
And on the way, there can be
Almost agreements, although
Both sides understand it was
Just tactics, the ebb and flow
Of the negotiation to be completed,
Each side striving with false
Smiles, unwilling to be defeated.

Fold Your Hands, Bow Your Head

Sometimes you need to contemplate,
As you sit back and digest the
The food you just ate,
Be thankful that it was provided,
And, maybe also mediate
About being able to eat
Through your mouth, not a tube,
It's worthy of your gratitude
A subject for daily praying.
I'm just saying...

Pick Up The Pieces

Like my heart pumps my blood,
Pulling it through my veins,
Driving it through my arteries,
The resonance of the song remains,
Melodic, memorable, moving
Me, the let's-dance music retains
The magic power, the grooving
Burst of sweating in the disco,
The simple joy of letting go...

Kiev, Part 2

I hold the brick in my hand,
Hefting it, then taking aim,
I throw it hard at the riot
Police, in this violent game
Of street politics we play
For keeps, as bullets and gas
Are fired back in our direction,
While the cruel cops amass
For a rush over the barriers,
Where we, the few, the brave,
The desperate, won't let them pass...

Alas, Kiev

Freedom in the form of burning tires,
Blood in the streets of the Ukraine,
Bitter barriers, black smoke fires,
No end in sight to the cold and pain,
Tear gas billows, riot cops deployed,
While Moscow feels schadenfreude.

  

It Is Good For You

We make toasts to each other,
And all that we have done,
We chatter, laugh, and shout,
Downing pints of Guinness stout,
Until we forget what we're about,
Whether we've lost or won,
Until we pass out, one-by-one.

The Known, But Unrevealed

I gaze at the bare tree, closely,
Looking for signs of the green
Which I know is there inside,
Now all wrapped-up, unseen,
Inside the bark, the green will hide
From February's cold, until
The warming time, it will abide,
And I know its secret, I know,
But am unable to accelerate
How quickly the green will grow,
As earth will take its own sweet
Time to nurture in the melting snow.

News Variety Programming

Talking heads on T.V. talk,
It is what they do the best,
Opine on everything endlessly,
Draw their pay, and screw the rest.

Deployment

Anchors raised, the ship goes out to sea,
The ship departs, yet is connected
By threads of love, tenaciously
held by those left ashore, as well as
Those afloat, who wait expectantly
For the distant sweet day when,
On a harbor pier, they will happily
Cry and hug each other again.

Death In Rural America

Here they lie, in the Iowa dirt, the young ones
All of them, just north or south of sixteen,
Too easily bored, to green to know better,
Distracted, too high, they were last seen
Trance-dancing with demons feasting
On crystal meth-amphetamine...

Onsen 温泉

Japanese get naked, and bathe
Together in large hot pool,
Then retreat to rice-mat rooms,
And drink while their bodies cool,
Then settle into futons, and deep
Relaxing, simple dreamless sleep.

Dating Advice

There are times when words fail,
They cannot be summoned, let
Alone be spoken, in time to make
An appeal, to reach out, to get
To the beating heart of things,
Before love's chance is lost...
So, instead, embrace, kiss her
Face, despite the potential cost...
And if you were wrong,
Words will emerge to let you
Know, but won't last long...
Otherwise, remain tongue-tied,
And caught in the the sad
Cul-de-sac of never having tried.

Some Such Sochi

A wonderful performance of physical skill
And muscle coordination, graceful, inspiring,
But ignored and forgotten, as fans will
Only be counting medals...

Quietly, the athlete, not having won,
Cools down, undresses, showers, knowing
Chance came and went, the thing is done,
Now all that is left is to get through
The loser's media interview...

Wind Blast And Blackout

The window rattles, screes, and sighs,
Buffeted by the blizzard wind outside,
And then, the electric power goes off,
Darkening the room in which I hide,
Reminding me, as things turn cold,
How even with technology applied
To keep things normal, warm, controlled,
This cocoon in which we reside
Is tenuous and vulnerable, subject to the
Power of nature's Jekyll and Hyde.

The Battle Between Men And Women

"Oh yeah?" he says, grabbing the bat
With the spikes, and gives her a hit,
To which she responds, blinking
And shaking, "Oh now you've done it",
Shoots him in the butt without even thinking,
"That'll teach you, male chauvinist twit!"
But, he bounds back up and launches
A Type-7 rocket-propelled-grenade
Right into her female haunches,
"Oh that's a big mistake you made!"
She says as she unsheathes the bayonet,
Charges, belabors him with the blade,
Stabs and blows are traded and parried,
Until, tired out, they declare a truce,
Kiss, hug, and go back to being married.

Oasis

Somewhere, in the middle,
Of the great hot dry,
Surrounded by sand dunes,
Blown and piled high
By the fearsome desert winds
Swooping suddenly from a sky
As empty as what lies below,
There is a miracle, a place
Where clear waters flow,
Where the date palms grow,
Sustaining the caravans, a secret
Sacred spot, only the camels know.

Almost Dionysian

Ultimately, the by- and end-products
Of the fun-loving suburban epicure,
Partying away the awful empty
Nights, paid for by one's sinecure,
Are half-remembered pleasures,
Then the crash and aches and ordure.

The Morning After

The soft warm press of their lips
In a kiss, now finished, letting
Go, they part, walk into the morning
Each step a small forgetting
Of a lovers' night, now gone,
A fading dream, inspired by urges
Mutually acted upon...

How We Survive

Morals, manners, and common sense,
Combine together to constrain
Our freedom to cause chaos and harm,
Causing us, miraculously, to restrain
What would otherwise raise alarm,
A klaxon call of impending pain,
To be given around and received
Among us, the most altruistic of apes,
Our clan rules and instincts, interleaved.