Fizzy

Instantaneously transported

From the glum now and here

Through the magic of drinking

An ice-cold beer...

Hello January

New Year’s Day spent

In solitude

Quiet, somnolent 

Smell The Flowers

Be aware of your happiness,

Lest it fall through the cracks,

Don’t miss the fleeting chances,

To sit down, smile, and relax...

横須賀うみかぜ公園

Perched up above

Seahawk and crow

Looking for targets

Among the picnics below

Average Days

Things sometimes don’t get better

But instead  just stay the same

Nothing lost in the process

Not much need to complain...

The Opening

Gaze across Tokyo Bay

At the rising Sun

Cold clean breeze

A New Year begun

Rocket

If there just was a way

To launch up from here,

Into a pure, unfettered,

Atmosphere,

Above and away

From the hurt

Of our lives down

Here on the dirt...

Elton John - Rocket Man (Official Music Video) - YouTube

Our Condition

Humankind 

Morally cursed by

Blind leading the blind

Truth lost in a mist

Yet happy to be

Fat and hedonist

Agriculture's Curse

Jomon hunter-gatherer lives

Were hard, but simple, nice,

The problems came later,

When they started planting rice...

Unsure

It had to be seen,

To be believed,

But what did it mean...

Provisional

High hopes for a new year,

As a bad year ends,

Will things get better?

Well that all depends...

Unavoidable

Pre-dawn minutes, peaceful 

Dark and still,

Don’t want to wake,

But I know it will...

Alien Sky

Strange oval clouds look like

Flying saucers, UFOs,

Shaped by the magic

Way the winter wind blows...

Creativity

Ideas intertwine, epiphany, fusion,

To produce something precious,

Out of beautiful confusion...

After The Longest Night

Solstice morning, gloomy chill,

Dry empty city street,

Crow pecking at roadkill...

Election Year

It started out as a 

Political debate,

But the losers

Decided to litigate,

Adversarial democracy 

Descended into hate,

Leaving no choice but

To insult, equivocate...

Misfire

The attempt at humor he used,

Was somewhat ironic-sardonic,

But she was not even slightly amused...

冬至の日暮れ

Solstice shortened light,

Dims in the cold arrival,

Of the year’s longest night...

D.C. December 2020

New day for the sleepwalkers

Of the leaderless Deep State,

Q-Anon’d and hacked, frayed

Hubris oblivious to their fate,

Talking heads continue to talk,

Politicos walk the cynical walk...

生き甲斐

Ironic that the work

Of trying to survive,

Somehow defines

One’s being alive,

Joy interspersed 

With bruises, aches,

Obstacles each day,

But you do what it takes...

Getting Over

A refusal to accept

That she is gone,

No point in lingering,

Just move on...

おはようございます

Early morning housewife

Wake-up energetic 

Rooms come to life...

For A While

It gradually 

Occurred to me,

That happiness only

Happens, momentarily...

Variation

Hard to explain 

How joy and sadness

Wax and wane...

Mirror Image

TikTok, Facebook,

Instagram,

Is this really

Who I am...?

Defeated Denial

The loser, despite the shame

No matter what the cost,

Won’t leave the arena,

Won’t admit that he lost...

Retail Apocalypse

Leaves from unattended plants fall,

In the courtyard of the dying mall,

Customers, once many, are gone,

Shopping on their phones with Amazon...

Year Of The Metal Rat

What 2020 brought was totally unexpected,

No rest for the weary, no closure for the leery,

Only frustration and fear of getting infected...

ウイズコロナ

Monday morning pandemic

Fatigue, and hoping soon 

That the herd will

Become immune...

View From A Park Bench

Bare branches, backed by a

Calm, blue-gray sky,

Feels peaceful, even happy,

But I don't know why...

Portland Nights

The littered street, strangely quiet,

Glittering confetti of broken glass,

Reflecting moonlight, after the riot...

七面鳥不用

Salad croutons used for stove-top stuffing,

Kabocha for yams, doing the best I can,

Replicating an odd American tradition,

Gravy-less and turkey-less in Japan...

AM Again

Daybreak,

And up we stagger

Into the give and take...

Social Media

On Facebook, as one would expect,

Egoists and blowhards,

Are pretty easy to detect...

快特特急

Wintry rain outside the train,

Misty, turning to ice,

But she is dry inside,

Staring at a handheld device...

Friction

Break out of my funk, set some goals,

Embark on action, plan my attack,

Then off in to the chaos, where I

Steadily, inevitably, lose track,

Buffeted by unlucky winds, I

Slowly tack, and then circle back,

Arriving at where I started,

Returning to where I departed...

Twilight Zone

Reality can be relative,

Some will say,

I spent all Friday

Thinking it was Saturday...

紅葉の渋滞

Winding mountain road,

Traffic jam, going slow,

Day-trip drivers

Crawling back to Tokyo,

Tired, getting bored,

Autumn colors pretty though...

What It Is

Contrary to delusions

Of things being better before,

This is as good as it gets,

There really is no more...

Sidewalk Mob

Here they come, in their uniforms,

Like a wave ... or what’s best word,

For a crowd of self-absorbed students,

On the move, a monolithic herd,

A chattering, laughing moving mass,

And although the street is wide,

The kids phalanx advances

Implacably, and I have to step aside...

Post-Covid

A year’s worth of

Fear and frustration,

To be dissipated 

By vaccination...

Nighttime Viewing

3 AM, dark, quiet,

Half-awake in bed,

Scrolling through

Memories in my head...

Nausea

I’ve come to understand, to admit,

That there’s no tomorrow,

It, is now, this is it...

Elementary

Complexity, beaten and boiled

Down into a cartoon,

In order to be understood

By the average buffoon... 

Sentinel

The old wooden pillar, worn smooth

By weather and ever-moving air,

Stands stoically, burnished and

Guarding a gate that's no longer there...

Science Or Not

At first, one should

Conduct a test,

Or, just roll-the-dice

And hope for the best...? 

Cause And Effect

No wonder that the noise

And problems never stop,

When whackos call

The shots from on top...

Free Time

Rain clouds arriving later,

Now cool and sunny, early Fall,

A Monday, and I bask in the

Joy of doing nothing at all...

Tactical Loss

Diet deployed to

Reinforce, me,

In my fight against

The force of gravity...

Instinct Recall

The crow’s raptor-rattle call,

A reminder of the times, when,

Beasts chased, and then killed,

And then feasted on men...

Bedazzled

For a moment, his mind 

Was in a different better place,

Somewhere between the

Supermarket, and outer space...

Unobtrusive

Nothing ventured,

Rivers, mountains uncrossed,

Content to live quietly 

In the land of the lost...

Stranded

Awoken from a dream,

Now no going back,

Sleep has been abandoned,

Clock ticks, insomniac...

Political Genetics

Fake news, fear, and

Ideologies transfected,

Unapologetically,

In order to get elected...

Teeth Thrift

Nothing goes to waste,

Kneading, coaxing out

The last squeeze of toothpaste...

Sale In Aisle 13

Marked-down breads and pastries rack,

The elderly women converge in a pack,

Picking, plucking, calculating values,

They are relentless in their attack...

Imminent Victuals

Messages delivered to the

Brain from the bowels,

Also sent via other means

When one’s stomach growls...

神社の朝

Dawn, Shinto shrine courtyard,

No other souls around,

Other than wind-chattering

Leaves, hardly a sound,

The silence in the ancient 

Place is soothing, profound...

The Art Of Listening

Sometimes the words that you

Speak, the signals you send,

Are met by a refusal, or,

Inability to comprehend,

Degraded communications,

Relationships wither and end...

Above It All

Onset of darkness,

Spooky crescent moon,

Up above the mess,

Peeks down between 

Clouds at our madness...

Unnoticed

Ever so slightly,

Things shift,

Ever so slowly,

Things drift...

October Dusk

Crickets chirping, evening cool,

Strolling into early Fall,

And I don’t miss Summer at all...

In And Out

Commuters, like so many

Corpuscles, riding the rails,

Sucked-up into the city,

As Tokyo inhales...

And, later in the day,

When Tokyo breathes out,

They flow the other way...

Modern Economics

Little by little, again and again,

All of us victims of

Cumulative dispossession...

On The Asphalt

Automobiles speed by in a

Sequential, desperate blur,

In order to go away from

Where they once were,

And get to another place,

At a breakneck pace,

Frantic forward motion

Like a speed disease,

Fueled by dwindling remains 

Of prehistoric trees...

Futility

The angry protest dude neither 

Realizes nor understands,

That the spreading virus lives

On his unwashed hands,

Or, that his unmasked breath,

Is the cause of sickness, death...

Visitors

The Aliens approach from above,

They descend, land, and hide,

Observe for awhile, then fly away 

In objects which are unidentified...

Journey’s End

How she got in the bed

Can’t recall when or why

Immobile in the TV’s blue

Light as the days go by,

Not noticing much as

She quietly waits to die...

At Starbucks

Early afternoon Cafe Lattes

Rumors recollected

Words traded rapid-fire

Friends discussed, dissected,

Taking note of

Fashion choices,

Secrets revealed in

Lowered voices...

Shiodome Lunch Time

Pause for a break in the

Shadow of a high-rise,

Office towers glassy gleam

Up into the bluest skies...

Covid Sports

A ballgame’s dramatic ending

Decidedly anti-climatic,

With no one attending...

End Of September

Above the rush hour roar,

Eerie high pitched cries,

As hungry Seahawks soar

Across the morning skies...

Gone

Her life appeared normal,

Nothing seemed amiss,

But she stood at the

Edge of a precipice,

A precarious place

She kept hidden from all,

Until something made

Her step off and fall...

独身

Solitary, solitude,

Lonely to be sure, but,

Free from things which intrude,

Free to do whatever,

According to my mood...

Cursed Cortana

Here I am, sit-staring 

At the screen again,

Stressed and depressed 

Battling Windows 10...

Ice Cold Beer

The first gulp is magnificent,

But after that,

Things turn fuzzy

And flat...

Random

Strange, but appreciated,

When once in a while,

A thought appears

That makes you smile...

Untitled

Slowly retreat

Into the mental mist

Where quiet

And dreams exist

Friday Sale

Doing, thinking, nothing at all,

The old man’s vacant stare

Sitting on a bench in the mall...

Shrug-able

Something’s off,

Times out of joint,

Ought to be concerned,

But what’s the point...?

Imminent

Ship of State,
Drifting toward the waterfall
Passengers pretty much
Oblivious to it all...

ムク鳥

A floating horde of Starlings
Descends in the evening glow,
Perch along the telephone wires,
And poop on what’s below...

A Closer Look

An olden days stargazer
Was able to discern
The Moon's shape shifted
Based on tangent and turn

Close Of Business

Promises unkept, and unmade,
Scattered like fallen leaves,
As the lights of a long day fade...

Loud Voices

Talk, talk, round-and-round,
Our problems never get solved,
Too many strident opinions,
Too many assholes involved...

Lost Faith

When things fell apart,
We had nowhere to turn, or hide,
We, who were believers,
Just along for the ride...

Another Working Day

A new day breaks my dream
As it always will
Get up off the peaceful bed 
And back onto the treadmill

Don’t Go To Sleep

Prepare for the worst
And try as you might
All useless when the
Typhoon comes at night...

Geezerhood

Finally achieved, financial
Stability, comfort, solitude,
Alas, all accompanied by
Creeping decrepitude...

Overhead

Silver clouds hanging low
Drift spooky silent
In the moon’s glow

Different Line Of Sight

The quiet luxury of being
Able to observe, relax,
Mondays displaced and distant
A pensioner’s parallax,
No more rat race,
No more hurry,
Mondays now someone
Else’s stress and worry...

Summer In The Zoo

Crouched in air conditioned cubicles
Hiding from the heat
The urban man-apes
Wait for the sun’s retreat...

Maternal Power

When a woman becomes a wife,
She gets stronger, of course,
Then motherhood turns her
Into an implacable force,
After her children are grown
And gone out the door,
She won’t return to being
The girl she was before...

Ha Ha Ha

Sound of human laughter, sort of unsettling,
Mix of hoots, howls, and baying,
Like something from up in the
Darkened jungle trees, just saying...

Centripetal

Over 700-miles-per-hour,
The speed of my planet’s spin,
But it’s really hard to notice
From the bed I’m lying in...

Poetic Magic

Beauty, maybe a kind of power,
Appear from words aligned just-right,
But it doesn’t happen very often,
Try as one might...

Mall Musings

All hail the shopping nation,
Happiness sold on the presumption
That it can be delivered through
Various forms of consumption,
And when all else fails,
Launch ten-percent-off sales...

Stall Time

Some think great ideas
While they wait,
Others simply vegetate...

Just Do It

Chance is a
Two-edged sword
But venture is
Better than being bored

Cause & Effect

Unhappiness brews
Left untouched, it distills,
Into stress, or
Something that kills...

バレた

Nowhere to hide
Completely caught
Wear the hair-shirt
Your lies have bought

Hotel Room

Bits of lives, accumulated like
Dust in 30 square meters of space,
Defy attempts to clean, invisible
Stains in a temporary place...

Kitchen Logic

It’s sometimes true
That one man’s soup
Is another man’s stew...

Pre-Equinox

August ascended, in
Blazing hot glory,
Now retreats, leaden
Gray, desultory...

夏蝉

Cicadas keening up high
In the August trees,
Black butterfly fluttering
In a breath-like breeze...

TGIF

In pursuit of happiness,
Off into the night they went,
Each imbibing their own form
Of social lubricant,
Happiness not a place
To go to, or find,
Rather a precious, transient 
State of mind...

The Thinker

His visage of contemplation 
A wise thoughtful air
But inside his head was
Blank, nothing there...

August 夕日

Balmy evening breeze

As the sunlight pales

All is tired relief as

A long hot day exhales

Break Up

It was when things started

To sour, to drift,

That they noticed

The existence of the rift...

The Observer

The old man was thought to be
Grumpy, sardonic, cynical,
But in his mind, he was
Simply being clinical,
Poised to declare and aver
The way things really were...

Safe Instinct

Its nest built under the eave,
A place the swallow somehow knows
Will keep its chicks from
Being eaten by crows...

The Uses Of History

History can be studied to help
Prepare or mitigate,
But, it also can be used
To foment revenge or hate,
Some memories best
Left in a dormant state...

Java Enlightened

Quietly surprised by
Something I never knew
Monday morning epiphany
Over a Starbucks Cold Brew...

Micro 幸せ

In a world which is a mess,
They doggedly cling to their
Small bits of happiness...

恋愛

Romance
Is often
A game of chance

Predation

Frog relaxing on lily pad,
In a placid lake,
And it never saw
The snake...

Portland Nights

Just before it all blew up,
A remarkable moment of quiet,
Then the switch was flipped
Into chaos, gas, and riot...

雑草

Swaying in a humid summer breeze,
Proud tall weeds and wild grass,
Someday to be cut and
Bundled off as bio-mass...

Harmony

In Japanese conversations,
A rule is generally applied,
Avoid being too explicit,
Rather, leave things open, implied...

Viral

She was, tragically,
Politically courageous,
While at the same
Time, fatally contagious,
Should have worn a mask,
Stayed home in bed,
Now just another case
Of Covid-almost-dead...

Pastime

Passing time while
Bored, having to wait,
Some will sort of
Meditate,
Others
Self-medicate...

Apparition

A fleeting glimpse
From the corner of my eye,
Where rules of reality
Don’t always apply,
Somebody, something
Seems to come near,
Sparking curiosity,
Or uneasiness, fear...
Then I Look! Only to
Have it disappear...

American Casual

Foot traffic at the Walmart store,
And as far as the eye can see,
Pushing carts full of junk food,
Clans of obese mediocrity...

Prophesy

A world gone mad
Ten years hence,
A result I cannot see,
But I can sense...

介護サポート

Wheeling grandma
Through the store,
Picking from consumer
Items galore,
Pushing her
This way and then that way,
Hope my kids will
Do it for me someday...

What's In A Name

An incredible, distant,
Unreachable cosmic display,
Which someone decided
To call a "Milky Way"...

When It Comes...

Writer's block, or
A blank slate,
Don't matter which,
I just will wait...

Crow Morning Buffet

Garbage breakfast time, and the
Dagger-beak crows stab,
Sensing the stinky juicy bits,
They tear, poke, and grab.
And not very long
After they start,
Raw garbage strewn about,
Bags ripped apart...

Muzak

A beautiful tune, brilliantly performed,
Note after note, chord after chord,
Plays on the elevator speakers,
Enchanting, but largely ignored...

Vehicular Chance

Lesson of the
Traffic light,
Stale yellow
Maybe all right,
Fresh red
Driver likely dead...

The Bugs Of Summer

In answer to some
Kind of chemical urge,
Up from the mulch
The insects surge,
Into the plant stems
And leaves they cling,
When the sun goes
Down, they start to sing...

Mixed Nuts

His sentiment,
That irony
Is a supplement,

Not only that,
But seriously thinks
The Earth is flat,

But before you gloat,
Or chuckle, remember,
He has the right to vote...

Instigation

The sad thing is that
When activists collide,
They start to insist you
Must take a side,
Don't ride the fence
And avoid the fight,
And naturally, their
Side is always right...

西洋ネズの果実

Forced by circumstance
To pause, and think,
Quickly conclude that
I need a strong drink,
A short time thereafter,
Some Juniper gins
Wake up my neurons,
Analysis begins...

Sugar Therapy

When stressed-out, overwhelmed,
Your optimism hurt,
Give yourself a break
And have some dessert...

Routine

Take comfort from continuum,
And what repeats,
Sunrises, sunsets,
And regular heart beats...

Plus-Sized

Lazy-lost and
Overweight, addicted,
Failure was totally
Self-inflicted...

Sunday Bargaining

On the seventh day,
The congregation
Gathers to deal with God,
Prayers a negotiation,
Requests for miracles
And special favor,
To be granted
By the holy savior...

ラブホテル

Hotel Sunset lighting up
With pastel neon power,
Pink glow in the gloaming,
Rents its rooms by the hour...

梅雨入り

Water pouring from the sky
Soaks, floods, corrades,
The slick humid green
Land of the gods...

Small Town Null

Bored out of our minds
At the Dairy Queen
Wanna be twenty one
But stuck at sixteen
Waiting for what
The day might bring
To end our coma
Something, anything

Auto Repeat

Late afternoon
Early to bed
Same song playing
Over and over in my head

Wasted Moments

Time sometimes seems
To twist and enlarge
While stuck waiting
To recharge...

Darwinian

An election
Is a form of
Natural selection...

Politicians, regardless
Of fame, or distinction,
Always facing
Potential extinction...

夏至 2020

Accumulate pedometer steps,
Trudging from there, to here,
Aimlessly, knowingly, on the
Longest day of the year...

RIP, Calvin Munerlyn

Essential employee, doing his
Job, a thankless task,
Shot to death for telling
Someone to wear a mask...

Reminder

A wound will usually
Bind and heal,
A scar remains to
Show how you feel...

Sunset Reality Check

End of day, above is all lavender
Light blue, orange, and pink.
And what craziness, tragedy,
Will tomorrow bring, I think,
But mostly out of my control,
Not much need to wonder why,
What will happen, will happen,
Realized under an evening sky...

Peace

Turned it off, and
All is quiet bliss,
No need-to-know,
Don’t care what I miss...

The Price Of Order

Enforce the laws,
And serve and protect,
Not always congruent,
As one would expect...

Look

Wait, halt your movement, and take
A good look at your stopping spot,
You’ll see small wonder and beauty,
More often than not...

Anchor

Sometimes, at the end of a day,
Just need to grab onto something,
To keep from being swept away...

Covid Spring Fever

Anger, so long held back,
But, then it broke,
Into shattered glass,
Bullets, screams, and smoke...

Heraclitus

From an ancient Greek,
An observation, advice,
That you cannot step
In the same river twice...

Sophistry

The words “nothing happened”,
Suggest that an opposite exists,
Where “nothing didn’t happen”,
Action obscured in logic mists...

Strut And Fret

Into the unknown day,

Embarked on a search,

For that we don’t yet know,

Forward into nothing we lurch,

Looking for happiness or

Meaning in our lives,

We dance and drift

Until whatever arrives...

In The Morning

Sometimes it has to be coffee
Others times it’s tea
Milk and sugar optional
Occasionally...

NY Subway, April 2020

Essential workers
Cheap and dependable
Ultimately
Expendable...

Pillow World

Viral images leak
Through neural seams,
And thereafter infiltrate
Otherwise peaceful dreams,
But the disturbances
They paint and make,
Happily dissolve
Once up and awake...

Near Miss

Like a cruise missile
Flying fast and low
Swooshes by my head
Hurried hungry crow...

What Happened

Virtual meetings,
Hug-less greetings,
Bounce off the walls,
Alcohol, introspection,
All side effects of
Pandemic infection...

Unsuspecting

Contemplating the nighttime stars,
Unsuspecting, on the green grass you lay,
When suddenly a flash of light,
And the aliens come to take you away...

Randomness

There’s what I think
I should have said,
But then uttered
Something odd instead,
Thanks to the twilight
Zone inside my head...

春雨

Hard to explain,
This peaceful feeling
From listening to the rain...

Michigan

Carry my rifle to the Capitol,
To intimidate, because I can,
Locked and loaded, I strut
Around like a country man,
Act like I’m ready to kill,
But constrained by reality,
I proclaim but stay still,
Except to pose for the
TV cameras, come what will,
Macho emotions unglued,
Rustic gun-lover thrill...

Slumber

Thoughts whirlpool down
Into something like a drain,
Consciousness weakens,
Seeds of dreams remain,
While twilight tendrils
Of numbness creep,
Slowly, stealthily, to
Put one down into sleep...

Post Pandemic

Emerging, on the other side,
Into a normalcy of sorts,
Restaurants only doing take-out,
And no spectator sports...

Before The Storm

Lost hope in the
Age of Reason,
Drenched by the first
Typhoon of the season,
No answers to the
Questions you ask,
Grimace or smile,
Hidden behind my mask...

隔離

These days of nature’s havoc,
Disconcerting, strange,
And we’re drinking
Heavily, while we rearrange,
We, who assumed the
Fun times would never change,
Now locked into boring rooms,
Where we cower quietly,
Waiting for the death
Of a killer we cannot see...

Ride Along

Followers
Have a need,
For someone
To lead...

Then off they go,
And how their story ends,
Well, that all depends...

While On A Nighttime Stroll

Miracle moment, not a second
Too late, or too soon,
Spring night clouds part
To reveal a full moon,
Unusually bright, and
Magical, silver silently
Shining a spell, a message,
Down to me...

Visage

Her face, like a mask,
She changes, depending
On the person or task...

What It Has Caused

New reality, adaptive rules,
Disruptive, discordant,
Results in poetry, songs,
Morose or mordant...

Social Mirror

It’s unfortunate, but sometimes true,
Your image of yourself,
Different from how others see you...

On The Pitch

Millionaires on the playing
Field, chasing a ball,
Yobs in the terraces,
All cheers and alcohol,
Its ultimate significance
Is bugger all...

Undermined

That entitled, comfy,
Normal feeling
Now in freefall, reeling...

Corona Twilight

Something off, weird, queer,
Things not what they seem,
Different than they appear,
Like a partly awoken dream,
Somewhere between wonder and fear...

Unavoidable

Dregs of a lazy Sunday,
Soon to be replaced by a
Busybody Monday...

Not The Same

A glorious green spring,
Untouched outside my window,
Has turned into an alien thing...

An Actor’s Power

Religious words preached with
Fervor, excite and inspire,
Ignite the dispossessed
With fundamentalist fire,
Words laid down like
Stepping stones, form a path,
Leading to martyrdom
And it’s bloody aftermath...

Boundless

Viewed from the windowsill
Of my quiet quarantine,
Outside is alive, being
Born again, springtime green,
And I’m getting tired of
This room and feeling wary,
So open a book, and escape
Into the imaginary,
Venture out to a
World of a different kind,
Enchanting, fulfilling,
And all of it in my mind...

除菌

Can’t really get away,
And unable to detect,
So all that’s left to do
Is to duly disinfect...

Post-Covid?

Its viral ability
To infect, maraud,
Underestimated,
Like an act of god,
Normalcy exposed
As a fragile facade,
Mastery over nature,
Just hubris, a fraud...

Invisible Hand

Humans at their worst
Develop cure, then fight
Over who gets it first,
So tragic, it’s almost funny,
Vaccine grabbed by
Those who have the money...

ツツジ

Just stop worrying,
No need to think,
Gaze at Azalea glory,
White and pink...

What Has Been Lost

Never realized that we
Would miss it so much,
The ability to hug,
The freedom to touch...

Buffeting

Interrupted nighttime rest,
Windows rattled by spring
Wind from the southwest...

Dismantled

The sculpture was truly
Something, back in the day,
Brightly painted steel,
Abstract art on display,
But due to lack of maintenance
Funds, it was taken away,
Sent to monument heaven,
Perhaps, really couldn’t say...

Biological Imperative

Cool cloudy Sunday,
Muted, green, alive,
Out in the fresh air,
Before the rains arrive,
All of us organisms,
Competing to survive...

Soliloquy

Step by step, I move
Steadily on my walk,
Then, the voices in my
Head begin to talk,
Full-fledged arguments,
As I amble about,
Eventually, usually,
They work things out...

Micro War

Looking out, from my balcony,
At another lost and passing day,
An overwhelming feeling comes to me,
A wordless recognition of
Transience, and inevitability,
Broken forever, the delusion
Of being powerful and free...

Drawers

Wonder, worry, agonize,
Don’t ignore,
Compartmentalize...

Sit~Talk

Business meeting, and emerging
From the mental diarrhea,
Not a single good idea...

Pause

Answering something craved
Is satisfaction
Fleeting moments saved

Vernal Vanity

In a place where winter
Brings not a killing frost,
Flowers and greenery
Are never totally lost,
Hence, with the Equinox,
The arrival of spring,
Is not such an epic,
Celebratory, thing...

Prepper

The crow has little
Time to rest
As it gathers things
To build its nest...

Darwin

It was an ending that never
Could have been forecasted,
But the victims all agreed
The run was fun while it lasted,
Their conquering scheme
Lost its luck, ran out of steam...

Empty Days

Wet clouded windowpane,
Blocks the view from a quiet room,
Sound of falling rain...

Currents

Sometimes, no matter how
Rich, smart, or strong,
Things will happen, and
You just get swept along...

Waiting To Receive

Hope is a gift
To a downtrodden soul,
It can heal and lift...
And amidst the
Uncertainty and fear,
We wait, believe,
That hope will appear...

Corona 24-pack

To kill a virus with
Copious amounts of beer,
The end of times
Is near...

Distraction

Not having to
Think about it,
Reduces the pain
And fear a bit...

お花見

They gather beneath the
Cherry blossom flowers,
Attributing trees with
Positive springtime powers,
Take pictures to
Confirm the event,
And then,
Away they went,
Vernal congregation
Between Sakura trees,
And winter weary
Japanese...

Cell Activity

Mind, and other, games
Played in a narrow space,
To put-off going crazy,
During shelter in place...

Hunkering

Off of the streets,
We stay inside,
And live and
Wait and hide,
In our safe rooms
We will abide...

Distant Disturbance

Ominous, over ocean,
Away from land, way out,
Dark clouds swirl,
Water spout...

Into A Wall Of Jello

Fighting a pandemic
Is complicated, slow,
Based on what you know,
You don’t know, and
Don’t know you don’t know...

Survival

Off of the couch, and hiding
Under the window, on the floor,
Try not to alert the zombies
Lurking outside the door,
Stay oh so quiet, still,
And remain out of sight,
What the zombies don’t
See, they cannot bite...

天命を待つ

Make best effort, and
Work till the end of day,
Then wait, as the gods
Will have their way...

Down To Earth

Sometimes, vulgarity,
When deftly applied,
Produces clarity....

Pre-Twilight

Sleepless, motionless,
In my bed,
With silver stars
Above my head,
Travel alarm clock
Ticking away,
All else silent in
The room where I lay...

Disruption

Habits, normality, the
Paths we daily trod,
Disturbed and degraded
By a viral act of god,
And panic sets in,
As we cannot be sure
Whether there will
Ever be a cure...

Companions

After finishing his
Daily walk,
He and the
TV have a talk,
The TV tells
Stories, news,
The old man
Exclaims his views...

Pre-Pandemic

A dissipating sense that
It’s safe inside here,
While outside it grows,
Slowly spreading fear,
Hiding in my rooms
And nowhere to run,
Hunker down and
Wait until it’s done...

Binging

It’s a show
I watch a lot,
But lost track
Of the plot,
But that doesn’t
Really matter,
Amidst all the
Sex and splatter...

Gerontic Luck

Old man crosses intersection,
On his bike, against the light,
Nearly causes mayhem, yet
Acts like everything’s all right,
Oblivious to the death moment
Missed, he pedals out of sight...

Shelter In Place

Rain, cold, gray,
A stay-indoors
Kind of day...

In The Dark

During a night, about
Halfway through,
Your mind can start
Playing tricks on you,
Dream things may start
To lurk and creep,
Until you are able
To fall back asleep...

Syria

Hiding from the bullets,
Cowering in a hole,
Cursing the poor luck
She could not control,
Born into a bad time
And in the wrong place,
War dust mixing with
The tears on her face...

29, 29, 29

It’s now, and here,
The extra day
To add to the year,
Thereby making it
Complete, correct,
An odd weird day,
Fleeting, circumspect...

Alone

Quiet as a mouse,
Or maybe a cockroach?
Motionless, I lie
In an empty house...

COVID19

Sheltering in my room
Up on the seventh floor,
While a virus spreads
Outside my door,
Waiting for things to
Be like they were before...

Winter Plant Power

By the chain link fence,
Behind a parked machine,
A nettle plant stands up
Proudly, purple and green...

Coffee Break

Plans executed relentlessly,
As hours and days go by,
And I am one of the few
Who stop to ask “Why?”...

意識

Welcome to the
Sentient zone,
A place you
Enter all alone,
Full of existential
Awe and dread,
And all of it
Inside your head...

政治家

Politics are entertaining,
But not entertainment,
All strive to be reigning,
Ride in big black cars,
Talk to the cameras
Just like movies stars,
Winners get to control
The ship of state,
Spend our taxes and
Influence our fate,
But all bets are off
As the election impends,
Tactical promises, and
Dog-eat-dog never ends...

Quadrennial

The Gregorian
Calendar we keep,
Proclaims that on
The 29th, we leap!

Anaesthetized

Destitute, bored,
But restless,
Medicate against
The nothingness...

Tiny Raptor

Viewed by a worm,
Or by a bug,
A sparrow is a
Dinosaur thug...

Dogma

In god we trust
Because an old book
Says we must

QBF

Flying in the clouds
Is how it sometimes seems,
Blindly aloft in a
Turbulence of dreams,
Gliding by instinct,
Instead of understanding,
Hopefully en route
A safe soft landing...

Daily Avoidance

Something that could
Happen, but doesn’t,
As if it were, but wasn’t,
Unhappiness deferred,
Or deflected,
While unnoticed,
Unexpected...

North Of Kansas

Look up at the overwhelming sky,
From a land fertile and flat,
Over which the coastal elites fly...

Waking Waiting

A part of her which tries
To stop, wants to keep,
Prevents her from
Going to sleep...

A watchful part,
She can dimly feel,
Insistent, lingering,
Ethereal yet real...

Cleared Out

Abandoned homeless camp,
Brown weeds bent in sadness,
Scattered detritus speaks of
Failure, addiction, madness...

Body Clock Abuse

Airport lounge,
All checked in,
Let the jet lag
Torture begin....

The District

Utterly self-absorbed, in
Theater of its own making,
Paid for by rewards of
Its taxing and taking,
Political mud-fighters
Excite and entertain,
The problems they
Should be fixing, remain,
The news cycle causing
A form of inebriation,
All drunk on power in
The capital of the nation...

Pizza And Beer

Dramatic energy and action
Viewed from a sofa
As an abstraction...

FB Friend

He spends all his
Time, or so it seems,
Flooding Facebook
With political memes,
Ad hominem funny but
Vicious partisan views,
Created by trolls
From the daily news...

水仙

February calm and cold,
And up from barren land,
Green, white, and yellow,
The brave narcissus stand...

Slumber’s Secret

The big sleep,
Will excuse the promises
We will never keep,
Never wake, and
Dreams abide,
What we don’t sense
We cannot hide...

Abstraction

Drips and splatters from
All over the color chart
Cover a canvas which
Proclaims to be art...

Adversarial

Wrestling for a compromise,
Offering, arguing, stress,
But lacking a common goal,
It ended up being a mess...

The Other Side

Tomorrow, elsewhere,
Twilight dreamland,
Things are better there...

Neolithic

Some guy in a cave
Charcoaled a bear,
Drew it on the wall
To show, and share,
A story about
A hunt, and a kill,
Beast defeated by
Humans’ skill...

(un)Assisted Living

Yawn, stretch, prepare
To rise and ambulate,
Greet the new morning
But don’t know day or date,
Having now reached a
Point where I drift,
Minutes a flowing river,
Each day an unearned gift...

January Seaside Park

Storm blows cold across the bay,
Harried waves grow green and gray,
Crash, break, in the fading light,
Seahawk lofting, like a kite...

Yokosuka Real Estate

Back before we became old and ill,
We built this house up on a hill,
Above the shipyard where he would go,
Down steep stairways, nice and slow,
To make a living in his workshop below,
But those were good days, way before,
Now we’re weakened, bent and sore,
Can barely climb the stairs anymore,
To our hilltop home with its gorgeous view
And cracks where winter winds blow through...

Each And Every Day

Move, stay still,
Do, or don’t,
Sometimes you’ll see it coming
Sometimes you won’t...

Hesitation

Unaware that the river
Wasn’t deep, just wide,
He did not attempt to
Swim to the other side,
Where things were happier,
He watched, never tried,
Hoping a bridge would
Be built, waited till he died...

海上の嵐

Passenger ship pitches and yaws
In a north Pacific winter gale
And he’s petrified, ugly sick,
Gripping a vomit pail...

What were the gods thinking
Casting a nightmare into the sea
Hoping it would drown, but,
Things turned out differently,
The evil dream learning
To churn and to breathe,
Birthing these monster waves
Which batter and seethe...

All this going through his head,
Trapped in a tortured cruise liner,
On a nauseous rolling bed...

Flux

Life, happiness, fate,
Are liquid, gaseous,
Not solid state...

Pensacola, June 1979

Stressed and shaking, drill instructor
Screaming into my ear,
Commence transition into warrior,
Through regimentation, fear...
Stand stiff, sweating, silent,
Making sure my civilian feet,
Align with yellow footprints
Painted on the grim concrete...

John Ford’s Gift

Bucket seats in a mobile box
From which we hear, see, feel,
Powered by fossil fuel, and
Man’s invention of the wheel,
Privacy, romance, and music,
Mobility and isolation,
The car is who we are,
In our automotive nation...

Ones And Zeros

A computer is a helper,
Or regarded as such,
But it can overwhelm,
Offer too much...

Appalled At The Mall

The ultimate fail,
Best years of my youth
Wasted in retail...

Something From Nothing

Time to be god-like
Learn to create
You’re not too old
It’s not too late...

Neurons Unleashed

Exterior quiet and calm,
Inside a tempest rages,
Ideas, memories, worries,
A storm for the ages,
Constant morphing,
Swirl, give and take,
Can it be slowed...
Is there a brake?

From Olympus

No point in wondering,
Asking why or how,
What the gods take away,
Or the gifts they endow...

YOLO

Do it, don’t worry
The if, why, or when,
Because you’re never
Going to be twenty again...

Pre-Conflict

Evidently, someone has
Started World War III,
Or so say the talking
Heads on phones & TV,
And we can’t avoid what
Will come, eventually...

In The Park

Sometimes get lost
In thinking
While walking around
Drinking...

Skyward

Behind the clouds
There must be stars,
Looking up from a
Prison with no bars,
Knowing they are
There gives hope,
That knowledge a
Small way to cope...