60 Cents A Pack

Seventeen years old,
All angry and upset,
Go the Mall and smoke
My first cigarette,
It was a Camel Filter,
Or Marlboro, I'll bet,
The tobacco, my
Rebellion, best thing yet...

Reality

Beer buzz
In the afternoon,
Satisfies, but,
Ends too soon...

Port Visit

Harbor park bench
Cup of Shizuoka tea
Cormorant floats
On a placid sea

福袋

Under a cerulean morning sky
Walk women full of emacity
Toward where the lucky bags lie...

2017

A new year's sun
The old one done
Hope less will be
Lost than won...

Should Be Obvious

Opinions differ vastly on
How one's life should be led,
"You need to believe this!"
"No, go this way instead!"
But mostly it just boils down
To avoiding being dead...

Blues Man

The Blues Man
Makes his guitar cry,
And so do I,
The beat consumes
Me, Oh My, Oh My...

What's Wrong With The World

Assholes ruin everything,
They bully and they bruise,
As they desperately
Do not want to lose,

Egoists will not settle
For being second best,
Shove their way to the front,
And screw all the rest,

Assholes are a
Cause of war,
World hunger,
And more...

Out Of Sight

Somewhere out in the desert
Where dead end trails lead
Dreambirds dance on rocks
Toad eats a centipede

(Art by Mark Harm Niemeyer)

Resurrected

Return of wife
Brings the house
Back to life

Passing

It is the last day of the year,
Princess Leia, and others,
Are no longer here

End Of December Breeze

North wind, blows steady, blows cold,
Shows no mercy, cuts no slack,
Reminds my bones they're old...

The River

A river flows in
The same place,
But it's never the same,
Ripples, eddies, erase
What the current
Will curl and displace,
A river is what we are:
As we dance in the light
From a random solar star...

Real Politics

Politicians may pose,
Posture, condemn, tell lies,
But in the end, it's
All about compromise...

小松

Looking at a field of dirt,
Where a building burned
Into nothingness, ashes,
All lost: lessons-learned,
Calligraphy, mementos,
Gone, except for memories,
So it goes...

Chance

What a day may bring
Is an unknown thing
So you sometimes adjust
If you really must...

Outpost

On the border, alone,
And somewhat afraid,
Hoping to be protected
By the walls they made,
On top of this Scottish
Rock, above the glade
And moor, exposed to
Winds, the English blade,
We somehow survived
Attacks aimed, arrayed
Against the hard rock walls
Which our ancestors laid...

Disco Is Dead

All was well, placid, controlled
Until someone started the beats
All funky, the bass and drums,
Propelled us out of our seats,
Into a happy throbbing dance,
Primal rhythm, we lost ourselves
In it, lost in an ancient trance...

Corporate Productivity

I work in the shadow,
Keep my profile low,
Grind away in the
Computer's glow,
And I'm up, and gone
Home, before you know...

Spritzer

Oenophiles claim it's just not right
That I pour my Merlot into a glass
With ice, and then mix in Sprite,
Well, hey, whatever gets you
Through the night...

Unrecalled

Calling old memories, sometimes
They come, sometimes they don't,
In certain special cases,
They simply won't,
The images they carried,
From all the unremarkable
Days, remain buried...

Prepper's Fate

Preparing for the Apocalypse,
Bunker built, everything stored,
Then wait until nothing happens,
Feel disappointed, then bored...

Plastic-wrapped Sofa

It's as if chaos and time's movement cease,
In the living room where nothing lives,
Every pillow in its place, all is peace...

Viewed From Faith

Each and every god-given day,
Filled to the brim with micro-risks,
All one can do is hope and pray...

Our Suburb

Windowed boxes of wood and brick,
Islands in oceans of short green grass,
Populated anonymously, with car
Models changing as the decades pass,
Silent, orderly, subdivided, subdued,
Tree-lined dream of the middle class...

Morphy

The old black cat hops
Up onto the bed where
I lie, then he stops,
Yawn, stretch, and scan,
Then down he drops,
To carry-out his cat plan...

Bad Planning

A parking lot, empty,
Never been filled,
For years, sits on top
Of a meadow it killed

Dusk Guests

The cardinals come by
In the dimming light
Red visitors feeding
As day turns into night

Sanctuary

Inside the thatch
The songbirds hide
From the hungry hawk
Who hunts outside

Her Image

The photograph preserves,
In black and white,
A moment of beauty,
Which, try as I might,
I cannot help but feel
A loss, a yearning for
It to live, become real...

Non-Winner

He goes to work, zombie-like,
Gaunt, grimacing, spent,
Slouches back and wonders
Where his happiness went...

Makes Me Wonder

Must be some some kind of truth
Written down somewhere
Treating people equal is not
The same as being fair...

Monochrome (Rev)

Wake with the sun,
What's going on,
When you're gone...

Sheets on our bed,
Tangled, cold, like
Love wasted, misled...

Breathe with your sigh,
Makes me high,
Don't know why...

Worry and wrack,
Disappear, as I
Embrace your back,
I will never let go,
Only you, and I,
Will ever know...

Interruption

I thought I had a plan
Everything schemed
And laid out in order
Until tequila intervened...

Momentary

The super moon
Is super, but is
Gone too soon...

Audio Healing

Oh, music, you can
Bewitch, beguile,
As I let go, surrender,
For a while...

Unreal

The movie, viewed and reviewed,
Only exists as celluloid frames, or
Ones an zeroes digitally accrued
Into a story full of sex and fear,
Transient flickering images,
Which take us far away from here...

Desk By The Window...

I work per the requirement,
Of being selected and hired,
Years ago, submitting reports
No longer desired, or required...

Funakoshi Harbor

Coast Guard patrol vessel
Backing out into the bay,
En route some sort of duty,
On a cool November day,
Watching it, it occurs to me,
That I am watching, caught
In a moment, existentially...

うっちゃり

Sumo wrestler, desperately applying
Push, which melds into the other's pull,
And combines to send him flying...

What's On Sale

The salesman uses energy,
Guile, psychology, speed,
To convince the customers
To buy what they don't need...

Salesmen in politics, churches, stores,
Tally their commissions
Behind closed doors...

Perennial

Down into the dirt I retreat
To my winter bed, where
I will wait for April's heat

Something Borrowed

Ghost, zombie, demon queen,
Gather at Shibuya crossing,
Japanese doing Halloween,
Without wondering what
It might really mean...

Autumn Moment

Basking in sunshine
On car hood
Lies a feral cat
All is good...

Some Kind Of Wisdom

Over the years I
Have come to discern,
That life pays out
Based on what you earn,
A lesson, some just
Can't seem to learn...

On the other hand, Life
Can also bait & switch,
Screw you over totally,
Karma is a bitch...

On The Shelf

So many books, unread,
And most will remain so,
When I am dead...

Hugging A Tree

The bark is rough against my face
My arms, too short, to wrap around
The girth of the god of this forest place,
Me, a few decades'-worth of meat
And fat, the tree has seen hundreds
Of seasons, through cold and heat,
Twisted by winds, it has grown
Into a giant, and I, embrace its life,
Both of us breathing, and alone...

We Will Go Viking

Sound the alarm!
Run to the woods,
Abandon the farm...

Bring your long knife,
Your bow and quiver,
Scandinavian thugs
Are rowing up the river...

Majestic

I pause from my mountain
Hike, made breathless,
By the majestic beauty
Of this piece of wilderness,
Lost in the moment, lost
In love of the emptiness...

Autumn Graveyard

Moss-covered stones,
Below them
Lie bones,
And, up above,
Remnants
Of love...

Post-Stroke

Old man baby steps slowly,
Favoring his stiff left side,
His cane tapping cadence
With each footstep applied,
Rehabilitation on an autumn
Day, windless, dry, and tame,
Sun's heat a balm, though
It burns hot all the same...

Non-verbal

The offer, was refused,
With the word "No"
Never used,

Face-saving denial,
Of request, through
A Japanese smile...

Morning Pause

Those occasional moments when,
His mind is like a blank piece of
Paper, but forgot to bring a pen...

Welfare Safety Net Fail

85 years old, alone in my
Place, with nothing at all,
But me, no friends still
Alive who might call,
No one left to lift me
Up when I finally fall...

How it came to this,
Bad luck, poor timing,
Karma's sweet cruel kiss,
I can't really understand,
What the hell did I miss?

Safe To Be Ignored?

Typhoon, causing meteorological
Chaos, releasing its power mercilessly,
Never makes landfall, safe to be ignored
Except by those who work on the sea...

Resolved On A Friday

I am determined
Not to do nothing,
Act on what the
Moment will bring,
Catch the curve
Ball it will fling...

K9

A barking dog
Will not bite
But on the other hand
It might

Persistence

Don't give up, even if
You think the door is shut,
For even a blind squirrel
Will sometimes find a nut...

Game Of Life

As hard as you may work or try,
A decision sometimes is made,
Outside of your ken, or control,
Based on the card that's played...

Curse Of Being A Human

Sparrow pecking at
A piece of bread,
Does not worry
About what's ahead,

Unlike me, consumed by
"What if?" and "Why?",
The sparrow only thinks
To eat, mate, and fly...

TGIF

Start the day with carbs
And coffee, get wired,
Head into work all
Determined, inspired,
But 10 hours later,
I'm just damned tired...

山の神

Something, Japanese
Understand too well,
Take care in the mountains,
Where demons dwell...

Equinox Spirits

Clearing the weeds around the grave,
Communing with ancestors, as the
Higan-bana bloom and gently wave...

秋分の引っ越し

Perhaps, sensing some minute shift in the
Humidity, the heat, the angle of the light,
The greens pack up their bags and depart
The leaves, in slow, steady, silent, flight,
The greens soon replaced by immigrant
Families of orange, yellow, brown, and red,
The cool whispers hints of the coming cold,
Where the greens went, unknown, unsaid...

     

青年の反抗期

A parent will control and protect
Out of love, and a deep fear of
Dangers, the child cannot detect,

But young ones will rebel,
Strain against the limits and
Stays, give their parents hell,

It seems so sad, so wrong,
That the fighting is exactly
What makes the children strong,
For they cannot hide, in the
Embrace of home, for long...

The Human Condition

Time spent in the vertical:
Reactionary, stressed,
As opposed to horizontal,
With its dreams and rest,
The vertical day, a fight,
Against gravity, until
Surrendering each night...

Glide Slope

What the young ones, the eager ones,
Need to understand,
Is that it's not what you aim for,
It's where you land...

無我夢中

Quietly swept by a daydream's
Whirlpool, into a special place,
Where imagination has the
Ability to ease and erase
Tension, tedium, but then suddenly,
Vanish without a trace...

The Appointment

It awaits, implacable,
Abstract but all too real,
The peaceful minutes it
Can't distort, it will steal...

Stability In Granite

The words carved into the old
Stone, bordered with moss,
Weather worn words, in the
Shadow, record an ancient loss,
Memories on a rock, which
Will not crumble or rotten,
Which will not tumble down
Into the dust of the forgotten...

    

Vanishing Point

Life is like a road,
Long and winding,
Walk, search, but
Never really finding
What you thought
You were looking for,
Your journey fraught
With friction and more,
Life's road, a graveled path,
Leading, declining, to an
Unexpected aftermath...

Stargazer

The wise man understands the curse
Of sentience, and searching for
Meaning, in an empty Universe...

It Keeps You Running

Eventually we succumb,
To numbness, to slumber,
To what we are running from...

Transition

Empty September sky,
Pine tree silent, missing
The cicada's cry...

The Morning After

The painful result
Of a bad decision
Made in the absence
Of adult supervison

Refugees

Away from cruel bloody Syria,
Into a boat, and onto the waves,
Casting our fates, like a roll of
Dice, hoping it somehow saves
Our lives, hoping we will reach,
Somehow, a safe-haven beach...

９月病

Summer sparrows bathe in the dust
Beneath a heat-tired Sakura tree,
Sun setting into tropical night,
Bell crickets trilling magically,
No hint yet of the day-end cool,
Which will arrive, inevitably...

無

Meditation is when
I quietly imitate a plant,
Dissolve myself into Zen,
Breathe in, breathe out,
Repeat it, again and again...

Migration

Abandoned swallows' nest
The owners flown away
Somewhere to the southwest
Away fron the typhoon rains
As summer glowers and wanes

First Love

It happens instantly,
First glimpse of her face,
Loins start churning,
Forgetting time and space,
All miraculous and burning,
Dreams become haunted,
By someone you didn't know
You needed, or wanted...

Advice From A Fjord

Get in the boat,
Do not think,
Just drift and float...

Sophistry

That theoretical moment when
Irresistible meets immovable,
What is supposed to happen then?
Nuclear fusion, or back it all up,
Contrive the collision again...

Old One Who Senses

The ancient camphor tree,
Knows, feels rather than sees,
Shading, below, the sentient ones,
Listens to the message of the breeze...

DMV Or Dentist's Office

Staring at the coffee-table-book,
Tired, wrinkled magazines,
I sigh, and take another look,
At the plastic clock on the wall,
Of this waiting place,
Its hands hardly move at all...

Electric Fireplace

Quiet and empty
There's me
And my companion
The T.V.
Consistent
Compatibility

Giants Versus Tigers

Humid summer night, trying
To put the bat on the ball,
Swinging, sweating, hitting,
Is the whole point, is the all,
The intention, all the same,
Of the past-time, to kill the
Moments, to win, the game...

Clockwork

Future becomes now,
It all happens fast,
And then now,
Slides by, into past,
Pleasure enjoyed,
But doesn't last...

Secondhand, Thirdhand

Today's hot fashion,
Is what they wore,
Some decades ago...

All been done before

What you may know,
Is a puppet show,
Wisdom's encore,
Reinserted, apropos...

All been done before

Lost Weekend

Where the day went,
I'm really not so sure,
Due to various factors,
Some of them, obscure...

Rio 2016

Drinking, eating
Watching Olympic
Athletes competing

Their muscular
Glory is fleeting

立秋

Heavy, and wet, from a typhoon's pour,
The long summer grass lies flat, and then,
Unnoticed, stands up like it was before...
The long grass, resilient, supple, and strong,
Will turn gold, will get old, before long...

Step On

Get up, get going, do what
It takes, whatever works,
What will happen awaits,
And opportunity lurks...

Aural Arboreal

In a forest, a tree falls down,

Groaning, cracking, popping

With no human there to hear,

The sounds of its dropping

Nearby the listening deer...

Float Away

Somewhere incidental

Magical or queer

I must go to the place

Where dreams appear

I must drift away to

Anyplace but here...

Pause Button

There are times when
Inaction is best
Better to wait and see
Better to rest...

Why?

We fought in Vietnam, and thereafter Iraq,
And Afghanistan, partially out of a sense
Of patriotic duty, the rest being the bond
Of soldiers who kill as a consequence...

Perspective In High August

Hot days, in succession, pass,
We call it a heat wave, sweat,
But it's all the same to the grass...

And Now A Word From Our Sponsor

So easy to lose track
Of what's important
And you can't get back
Time lost wandering
In a consumer cul de sac

Florescent Light

The subtle joke having been told,
Some seconds pass before a flicker
Of understanding finally leads
To a smile and a snicker...

Separator

When things bog down, and barriers
Rise, progress all ruin and wrack,
Fight on, and wait for the solution,
To come rolling down the track...

(Photo by Geoffrey M. Hamilton, 1955-2011)

Missed Opportunity

It's a deeper, different,
Kind of sad,
Crying over something
You never had...

Omaha, California Bar (Part 3)

Politicians come and then go,
Elections are a clown's bazaar,
I watch all the sound and fury,      
And hold down my end of the bar...

Global warming underway,
But still want to drive a car,
I foresee our future of terminal sweat,
And hold down my end of the bar...

Young fanatic celibate men,
Attack innocents near and far,
I curse the fates from twisted gods,
And hold down my end of the bar...

Corporate's endless sales pitch,
For sex and a good cigar,
I pay for my beer with dollar bills,
And hold down my end of the bar...

Our media-manipulated drama,
Plays as we orbit a minor star,
I recognize the utter meaninglessness,
And hold down my end of the bar...

After The Rainy Season

Before the silent hiding
The night will bring
In the dying heat the
Insects bravely sing

Fruitless

Searching for what
I suspect is there
Only to have it
Vanish into the air

A Thought Over Curry

When one gets older, things should slow down,
But they don't, and depending on one's mood,
It is all accepted as inevitable, or it is not,
Resulting in a rebellious "senior attitude,"
Which, being old enough to know better,
One might choose, instead, to be shrewd,
And act like it didn't really matter much,
All overemphasized, and/or misconstrued...

Passive Power

That unnamed force, which
Stops, and makes one still,
Do nothing, and then let
Things go where they will...

Omaha, California Bar (Part 2)

Early afternoon, old man at the bar,
Regular spot, same time and drink,
Comes here from a room not too far,
To avoid being alone, I think,
Lot's of those places around here...
This bar, an oasis for old age,
Sooths, sedates, with shots and beer
Lost hope, bad memories, or rage,
Which one, the old man isn't saying,
He just drinks and turns the page,
Nods to the music that's playing,
On the jukebox, old songs, for
Which someone else is paying...

Under The Blanket

Cloudy sky, a gray-white glow,
Both blocks what burns above,
And hides what lies below...

Protected by the overcast,
Green writhing undertow
Cools until the day is past...

Afternoon At Whole Foods

Hungry hunter gatherers,
Mingling in high density,
Pushing supermarket search
Carts, with driven intensity...

Summer Feral

The cat sits in the shade,
Which a creeping green
Mass of kudzu has made,
By choking and covering
An unlucky tree, the cat
Eyes butterflies hovering...

Green Rebuke

If plants were sentient
What a fix we'd be in
They would hate us and
Quit making oxygen

Endless years of being
Trampled and chopped
"Suffocate the humans"
Until it will be stopped

Civil Protest

Seems to reason, that if you had not
Gone to the controversial place,
You could have avoided the pepper
Juice, sprayed on your face...

Cocoon

Safety is an embrace,
By nothing happening,
In a well-worn place...

Alphabet Power

What is difficult to
Express in prose,
Is better done through
Poetry, I suppose...

I Flip Therefore I Am

A philosopher has to think,
But also has to find a way
To pay for food and drink,
So now he labors, frying,
Food at Burger King,
Grilling logic, decrying...

Truth Of The Candle

The urge was irresistable
When it came
Like that which draws
A moth to a flame
An urge to know why
To see inside, learn,
Rules which apply,
To make moths burn...

End Of A Day

Sunset paints pink and
Pale violet skies,
Swallows swoop,
Searching for flies...

The Gloaming's Gift

At the end of a summer day
Heat dissipates upward
Drawing the humidity away
Languid air swirls and spools
Slowly transforming into a
Breeze which gently cools

Blackbeard

Pirates of the Carribean,
Stole the silver and gold,
From the Spanish galleons,
Sailing alone, uncontrolled,
Unlucky, fair game for plunder,
Their ultimate fate untold...

What Comes Around

What is inevitable,
Can often be construed,
To be a big fat sign
Saying "You are screwed"

The Somme, Much Later

The re-enactors in the station,
Silently remind of how large
Was the loss, 100 years before,
20,000 wasted in a walking charge,
Into machine guns, in a cruel war...

Rain Gods?

Parched land, and the
Farmers dream of storms,
While hundreds of miles
South, a typhoon forms...

自然に

鳥は鳴く
人間は
詩を書く

Steamy July

This cloying humid heat
Doesn't bother the ants
Or certain kinds of plants
Who thrive outside
While inside air conditioned
Cubes we hide

52 Pick Up

Decisions having been made
Life goes on according to the
Cards that have been played

Ghetto

Hard to deal with that
Which can't be controlled,
Pounded down, beaten like a drum,
Our souls already bought and sold,
By being born into this slum,
Forced to take sides, to fight,
Unable to prevent the thugs we bccome...

Out Of Luck

That point in time when
Things start to go stale,
Green turns yellow or brown
The bad odds prevail
To pull you down

A Bit Of Advice

When in doubt,
Run in circles,
Scream and shout,
Or, don't do a thing,
And wait for whatever
Fate will bring...

Tokyo Dismaland

A day spent in the company
Of Mickey Mouse, and the
Expensive Silly Symphony
Of cartoons come-to-life,
Giving happiness, temporarily,
To those who would receive
It, from imaginary hand-drawn
Beings, in whom they believe...

Digital

I don't, or maybe I'm
Not meant to, understand,
Why there are four, not
Seven, fingers on my hand,
I mean, it all works fine,
Fingers and opposable thumb,
Quite an elegant design,
About as useful as they come,
Holding my bottle of wine...

Broken Then Fixed

When a plan fails
A solution can emerge
When balance prevails

From Within A School Of Fish

Events barely viewed or perceived,
From inside a constant moving
Influx, too much to be received,
Some of it gets retained,
To coalesce into opinions, or
Deposited as wisdom gained,
But most of it is momentary,
Unnoticed and unexplained...

Opening Night

I'm lost, in a room full of art,
And art lovers, milling about,
Trying to recognize beauty,
Before the Riesling runs out...

Behind The Strip Mall

Surviving without wealth,
Meaningless, disposable
People, dwell in stealth,
In worn-out trailer parks,
Lives passing in parabolic
Drug-sedated arcs...

Cocktail Talk

Good conversation, like a cow
On a path, never goes straight,
Pauses, and wanders in curves,
Never ceases to fascinate,
A badminton match of sounds,
Harmonize to communicate,
While staying in bounds...

Forgotten Devotion

A child cries out at night
Comforted by mother
Assured that it's all right
Whispers, sighs, back to sleep

And decades later,
No one around to take
Away the midnight angst
When I suddenly wake

Somewhere deep inside
Lost memories of
Nighttime nuturing hide

長い草

Green and sharp-edged
The long grass grows
Summer will soon pass
The long grass knows
And its leaves bow down
When the wet wind blows

Life Force

Out of nowhere,
Hope sometimes springs,
Can't explain why,
Just one of those things...

Hostage Horizontally

Helpless to stop,
What dreams keep
Video-ing,
In lieu of sleep...

夏至

After the rain, steamy and clear,
Trees drink up the sun's light,
On the longest day of the year...

Mean Green June

Stunned by the humid heat,
Lie on tatami, perfectly still,
Wish for a breeze to breathe
Across the windowsill,
Nothing to do but wait,
Perspire and evaporate...

Big Curve Ball

Life plays wicked
Nasty tricks on occasion
IRS audits
Mongol invasion
Viewed from above
And as a whole
Life is basically
Out of control

Immigrants

They, having come across and through,
All the barriers, unscathed, now
Staring, pondering what to do...

(Art by Mark Harm Niemeyer)

Thanks-taking

Turkey is cooked, cranberries deployed,
Now is null, before the appearance,
Of the guests we would rather avoid...

  

All Part Of The Process

Pick up the pieces,
Recover, surmount,
Time after time after
More, than I can count,
I concentrate on the fix,
Duct-taping solutions
As the big clock ticks
Away the hours, and
Minutes, lost in the mix...

戦艦大和

Beneath the waves of the East China Sea,
Sunk in desperate battle, many years ago,
Lie the gray steel and long lost souls,
Of the Navy Battleship Yamato...

Now fishing vessels drag their nets
To harvest what will become sushi,
In Shanghai, consumed under sunsets
Never imagined by the samurai sailors
Dying for the Emperor, with no regrets...

We Are, For Now

As we travel through our autumn days,
Each of us, towards our various ends,
We realize, as our memories fade,
The treasure of long-loved friends...

Hug them, keep them closely now,
For what lies ahead is known,
A steady, unforgiving, attrition,
Until one of us, is left alone...

No Refund Available

When a happy marriage
Is blessed by a priest
Money gets paid for
The clothes and the feast

When a broken marriage
Needs to be dissolved
Lawyers take money
From everyone involved

Through the good and bad
At the end if the day
It's the father of the
Bride who has to pay...

平役人

Japanese bureaucrat,
Well into middle age
Passive aggressive
Full of pent-up rage
Over the growing gap
Between his dull reality
And what, in his ego
Dreams, he wants to be...

Viewed From 60

It is some kind of Zen
Knowing shit will happen
Again and again...

Post Orlando

Politicians perform and preen
Not saying what they really mean,
They declare and they chatter
But it doesn't really matter,
Unlike the angry bullets
And the lives they shatter...

Lost Memorial

On a forgotten hill,
The three crosses,
Are anemic symbols
Of outrageous losses...

(Photograph by Geoffrey M. Hamilton, 1955-2011)

Beacon

Morning beacon, what do you proclaim,
So potentially dramatic, and colorful,
Yet this day seems just more of the same...

The beauty of the moment casts its spell,
How long it will linger, on this new day,
May be an unknown, too early to tell...

(Photograph by Geoffrey M. Hamilton, 1955-2011)

  

Plant Wars

Weeds and grasses vie
For the best sunlight
And the losers die

Or one of them tries
To twist and bend
In compromise

Sunset At Starbucks

Late sparse afternoon
He sits alone and stirs
Cinnamon into the latte,
His favorite, not hers,
She, long since departed,
From the counter, where
The whole thing started,
And it felt so special
As the feelings drew
Them on to places in
The heart they never knew,
He sips his coffee, sighing,
Over something precious
Lost, for lack of trying...

鳥居

Ancient entry point,
On the other side,
Past where it stands,
Is where gods reside.