Lonely Optimism

The many kinds of peace,
Which we all seek,
We, who know no rest,
We, the harried meek
Inheritors of the messed
Up world our parents left...
What peace can be found
When greenhouse gases abound,
And too many people are around...
The kinds of peace we need
Are provided in pills and bottles,
In the null of sleep, indeed,
We long for a peace which throttles
The bilious place where anxieties breed...
We hope, that hope will not betray,
We hope, that hope will yet succeed.

Leopard Man

It could be me
Looking down at you
From up in a tree...
Might I change my spots?
If required, yes I can...
Part chameleon, part
Joker, I am Leopard Man...
It could be me
That sets you free,
I exist in art,
Where I can start
Psycho-creative thrills
From pterodactyls,
I can summon dream birds
To fly in your head,
I can write rainbow-colored words
Or purr a song instead...
It could be me
To Leopard-stalk your tired
Empty days, and pounce on
The boredom-pig, make you inspired...
It could be me, it's true,
Or, it could be you.

(Art by Mark Harm Niemeyer)

Particles At Play

Leptons lying in a Higgs field of grass,
Quarks busy putting their clothes on,
The forces are playing, but what about mass?
Ask mysterious Mr. Boson.

The Eye Of The Beholder

The village idiot,
May be as dumb as he seems,
But he has the most
Incredible dreams,
Which, could they be displayed,
Villagers would see and realize
Assumptions made
Were misled by their eyes.

Eyeball Liberty

Look surreptitiously, but do not touch,
Honor marital ties and trust...
Touch me, and think of another,
If you really must,
For our love will always smother
Your daydreams of lust.

4th Of July, Yokosuka, Japan

Standing next to an old memorial stone
For a Battleship sunk by the Americans,
I see Stars and Stripes raised, not alone,
But aside Rising Sun, above the dull black
Steel of a Japanese submarine moored
Across the bay, and it makes me think back
To the awful burnt and bloody fight,
Often to the death, against implacable attack,
Which ended in ashes and pain and blight,
Now, here, decades after, this wondrous sight
Of the flags of former bitter foes raised,
Flying side-by-side, Japan honoring an ally's
Independence Day, leaves me touched, amazed.

Manning The Rails

I stand on the edge of the deck,
With dozens of others, faced
Outwards, each a white-clad speck
When seen from ashore, each braced
In the position of Parade Rest,
As our big gray warship enters port
Flags raised high and fully dressed,
My arms really hurt, as do my knees,
But there's no relief yet, for me, or the rest
Of the sailors, flapping in the breeze.

Crossing The Line

Us Pollywogs, Or Wogs for short, we were told to put on our
Clothes inside out, and report, very early in the morning, to the
Work center where the fun stuff began -- made to sing, repeat
Insults to relatives and ourselves, to walk like a duck and go
"Quack, quack, quack..." -- then, some silliness with shaving
Cream being applied liberally to heads and bodies, drinking
the "Truth Serum" -- warm orange juice and tabasco sauce...
And then it was nuts-to-butts and slime up to the top deck,
Where we ran around an flapped our arms like Goony birds,
And then we got to crawl through a 20-yard long canvas
Tunnel filled with last week's stinking kitchen garbage, and
There was the grimy dunk tank, and the Shellback Chiefs
Who had the largest guts were rubbing their bellies with lard
And we each have to try to get the almond out of his belly
Button using our lips -- All this for a few hours in the honor
Of King Neptune, as we Wogs, who were crossing the
Equator for the first time, were transformed into Shellbacks,
Just like the ocean-going mariners of the olden days...   

Marriage Senryu

Point remote control
At nagging partner,
Push mute button, in vain.
- - - - - - - - - -
Fighting over nothing special,
Peaks to a climactic pause --
Both start laughing
- - - - - - - - - -
She talks, knowing he's there,
He hears her, but doesn't listen,
A sort of compromise.

Living Room Relativity

A modicum of change, refreshment,
The feel of travel without taking leave
Of one's rooms, this accomplishment
One can surely achieve,
By rearranging the furniture...

There To Hear

A radio playing beautiful music in an empty room,
Like a tree falling in the forest with no one there
To hear, and breaking hearts each day for whom
No comfort can be found, these are the places where
Things could change profoundly, and zoom
To joy, if there was a listening heart to share.

Epiphany At Taco Bell

Throw the trash into the hole in the top
Of the box, place the tray on the designated
Spot just above... There is no way to stop,
This flow of papers and plastics, fated
To be processed into hazardous slop,
There's no way to halt what we must consume,
No way to avoid ecological doom...
Is what I think to myself, paused
For a second, in front of the bin,
A momentary hesitation caused
By something apart from the place I am in.

Too Tired To Think

I rub my tired eyes
After a long hot day,
As my sweat dries
The wetness steams away,
Epidermic action tries
To reach comfort,
At the end of the day,
Cooling, the only goal
For my unrelaxed
Sweltering soul...

Hump Day Senryu

Where did my day go?
Spent on administrivia;
Can I get a refund?
- - - - - - - - - -
Sitting in a row, on a train,
Heads bowed, as if in prayer,
Over hand-held devices.
- - - - - - - - - -
Calorie-counting
Shocked into off-mode
By big jelly donut
- - - - - - - - - -
Time is money,
Money is power,
Power is relative...

The Cosmos And Me

Ambient music
Spurs thoughts of space,
While I'm stuck
In an utterly banal place,
Me, one of billions of
Carbon-based life-forms,
On a a speck in the swirl
Of galactic storms...
Me , who can conceive
Of the complex inner
Workings of stars, until
It's time for dinner...

26th And 27th June, 2012

These are the last cool days,
I know, because I can recall,
Soon will come the sweaty haze,
Sun burning until the fall...
Yea, verily, the cicadas will scream,
For their two-week lives, in the August steam.

Nocturnal Disruption

The clock says three,
Get up to pee;
The clock says four,
Can't sleep, read some more,
Soon the sound of my snore;
The clock says eight,
Aw shit, I'm late!

Alberta Gothic

How did we get here on the plain,
Where RVs migrate on the trails
The buffalo used to roam,
Criss-crossed by roads and rails,
Fertile-flat Canada is our home,
Where the wide horizon prevails
Upon our senses, and we are free
And wild and open, we descendants
Of those who came across the sea,
After busting out of Europe and
Away from Old-World insanity,
Now, here we sit, on the dirt
Of our future, a speck of humanity
Young, strong, unafraid, unhurt,
We sit together on the grass,
Where the ghosts of the buffalo pass.

(By Photo Fiend)
http://thephotofiend.tumblr.com/ 

Zen Failure

Mind blank, conscience clean,
Skilled at forgetting,
If you know what I mean...
Meditating on the sound
Of one hand clapping,
Sutra going round and round --
Might as well be napping.

The Floating Girlfriend

His girlfriend is mysterious and quirky,
She does this trick when only he is there,
In the basement magic and murky,
That's where she floats in the air...
Yes, she levitates, no tricks no strings,
Like a angel with invisible wings...
His heart lifts toward her, full of love,
To the ethereal girlfriend, floating above.

(By PhotoFiend)

(By PhotoFiend)

Post-Typhoon Senryu

My job sucks,
But I do have
An interesting hobby
- - - - - - - - - -
Fresh strong coffee
Can relieve
Mental constipation
- - - - - - - - - -
We remain children,
Those of us who
Have no children.
- - - - - - - - - -
A watched kettle
Does, in fact, boil,
If you're patient enough
- - - - - - - - - -
Bright peaks, dark valleys,
Planes of the mundane:
The topography of love.
- - - - - - - - - -
Same sex marriage? O.K.
Don't want children? Fine.
Just pay more taxes.
- - - - - - - - - -
He is all apples,
She is about oranges,
Together, they are fruit salad.

Ajisai

Hydrangeas bloom in the time of the rains,
In the semi-cool air, under cloudy-gray sky,
Blue, pink, or white, their beauty displayed,
Until the first heat of summer, when they die.  

Rocket Men

We, Space G-men, may be
The last thing an alien will see,
Before its obliteration...

We defend our space station
With the latest weapons technology
And we offer no apology
For zapping the ETs,
With a quick trigger squeeze.

We, Space G-men, are O.K. with our fate
Living away from earth, wearing funny suits,
Working for the standard government rate.

And, we exist, so isolated, so far
From our homes, under the lonely
Azure light of a distant star...  

(Art by Mark Harm Niemeyer) 

Plate Tectonics And Me

I'm standing still on solid ground,
As opposed to being tossed around
On the seas, leads to a complacent
View of dirt as rocky-firm, unchanging,
When, it is but a thin layer adjacent,
Above, the lava that pushes, rearranging
Things in fearful shocks and quakes,
Where the land waves like an ocean,
And what seemed so solid, cracks and breaks...
I'm standing still on a green field of grass,
But deep beneath, is a mad molten mass.

Two Lane Highway Release

Free, free, free-flying
Down the Pawnee County
Highway, not even trying
To keep track of the speed,
No looking back, no spying
The rear view mirror, it's all
In front, free, free, with pay
In my pocket and a full
Tank of gas, today's the day
That is what it is, to be
Devoured whole before I say
It's done, the moments dripping
Down my windblown chin,
Speeding unheeding through
The road show I'm in...