Thank You Bayer

What was once a headache
Lurks at the edges of my head
Like retreating jackals, done
With feeding on the dead;
The pain dulled except for
An occasional twitch of nerves,
Still sensitive and sore,
At the back of my eyes,
And base of my neck, yet cured
By a miracle which aspirin supplies...

Post TransPac Flight

Surrendered, could it perhaps be
Other words: handed over, or given,
To the airlines, unconditionally,
To be strapped into twelve hours
Of blood-clotting, butt-numbing
Nothingness which easily overpowers
And stymies any emergent measure
Of comfort, joy, or pleasure;
And so we soldier on, we who have
Surrendered ourselves into the care
Of a meat-pen flying through the air...

A Case Of Relativity

It's a seldom noted fact, that
Time's rate of acceleration,
Increases greatly,
While one is on vacation.

Home Leave Haiku

A lull in the conversation,
Words no longer necessary,
Staring at the camp fire.
- - - - - - - - - -
The Chickadee is fearless,
First to use the feeder,
But doesn't linger either.
- - - - - - - - - -
Garbage cans appear on curbs,
Every Thursday morning,
Proof that life exists in the suburb.
- - - - - - - - - -
Gastronomical epiphany,
At Village Inn restaurant,
"Free Pie" Wednesdays.
- - - - - - - - - -
Sitting in the back yard,
Imagining how it must look
From above, on Google Map

Grown Up And Away

Cleaning out her bag -- the one
She left behind, along with some
Clothes and papers -- "Better done
By herself", I think, as I separate
The saveable things from the detritus
Always found in women's totes, my eyes
Get a bit moist seeing her photos,
A condom in a pocket, surprise, surprise,
"She was always a strong one", I sigh,
Her rebellions, the boys, she was wise
Beyond her years, saying "Papa I'll be fine",
An ache in my heart, each night she went out,
Back in the days when she was mine
To raise and control and worry about...
Now she's gone into the world of men,
And I'm far away, holding her old things,
Helpless to protect her, like I could, back when
I pushed her on the playgrounds' swings...

Drama In The Bushes

The hungry hawk dives suddenly,
And violently crashes
Into the thicket, from
Which a scared rabbit dashes,
Lucky and uneaten,
And the hawk squats down
In the bramble, defeated.

Secrets Of The Universe

Mostly, most of us don't,
Think of infinity, and what
It implies -- most of us won't
Want to know too much,
Because to understand
It accurately,
Basically requires a
Physics degree...
And most of us prefer to
Believe what we can see,
Or congregate with
Others in shelters
Of faith and myth...

With Love, From Talk Radio

Republicans are Red, 
Democrats are Blue,
They won't hear each other,
Until the yelling's through,
And a will to smother
The partisan feud,
Emerges to stop
The venom that's spewed... 
The bitchy, tit-for-tat,
Social-political hate,
Needs to be halted
Before it's too late...

In Memory Of John Lundsten

I'm remembering my Uncle John,
Finally released from his hospital bed
In Oregon, now embarked upon
His journey through a distant, ethereal world --
He can surely look back, perhaps amazed
At where it all began, in the Minnesota
Fields, where he was born and raised,
And learned to lift his wise-gentle eyes
Up to the songs and fluttering wings,
The small feathered miracles of life,
He came to love, along with other things:
Family, friends, and nature -- now he's in
A better place, where a feathered angel sings.

The Waist-land

Try as I might, I cannot shake
The image lodged in my head
Of a Porterhouse steak,
Which is about the last thing
I could hope to partake
Of, in this peak moment
In my fast, for the sake
Of proving I can endure,
The long road to my cure...

Last Day Of October

A candy wrapper, yellow, like a leaf,
Tumbles in the harvest breeze, while
The little goblins skip away, in the
Glow of the Jack-o-lantern's smile...

It Was Worth It

With red-tired eyes I look
At the clock,
Lack of sleep
Caused by a real good book...

Afterthought

Waiting for the coffee to brew,
She wonders why things turned out
So strained, last night,
Surely he knew
What it was not about...

Night Shift

Sleep through the day and work at night,
Keeping vampire's hours, under the moon,
You play in the pale-neon light,
But it always seems to end too soon,
As the sun returns, and adults awake,
You lie in the bed the shadows make...

Navy Wife

She holds up his shirt
To her face, and smells
Him, which lessens the hurt
Of being far apart...

Unwashed laundry
Saves a breaking heart.

What Can Never Be Controlled

Seemingly mysterious, invisible,
The implacable urge to grow,
Spring-loaded in all living things,
Is the most dangerous thing I know.

Only when revealed for what it really is,
In out of control kudzu, populations,
Or cancers, does growth reveal its fangs,
And we're undone by our copulations.

No winter arrives to halt, to freeze,
Our visceral drives and desires,
Which run, unchecked, in the cold --
Countless, tiny, white-hot fires...

Seemingly Unaffected

The tiny butterfly alights gracefully
On an autumn leaf, and spreads its wings,
Almost proudly, as if it's summer, not October,
Does a butterfly know such things?

Surrounded, In Okinawa City

Through the window I see the protester
Clearly, he is an angry elderly man,
Part of the worked-up crowd
Blocking and surrounding our van.

He brandishes a printed sign saying:
"We Are Angry" -- the letters yellow
And the background bright red, and I
Wonder whether to tell the fellow
That he's holding it upside-down,
But I don't, and just watch instead
His placard waved inverted,
An old man's excitement and anger fed
By indignation, then converted
Into action, and surely higher blood
Pressure, at this crux of confrontation
Performed for the ranks of reporters
And cameras, drawn to the situation.

And then it's done, he retreats
With all the others, demonstration
Complete, the placards are collected,
He disappears into the streets.

My Muse

A voice that comes from within,
Whispers in the midst of a busy day,
Making me pause for a moment
And listen, to what it has to say
From a world that causes no sound,
The voice offers fleeting thoughts,
Some nothing special, others profound,
My voice from within can be steady,
Even when chaos and confusion abound,
It is my faithful and silent companion
When nothing, or none, are around...

A King Henry Headache

There was a monarch
Who, in the fatal course
Of losing a famous battle,
Really could have used a horse...

So it is with the sorry
State my head is in,
"My kingdom for an aspirin!"

Consequence Management

Flying over green-black mountains,
Through a clear October sky,
We're on our way to offer comfort to
A wounded woman, who doesn't know why
She had to be attacked, after dark,
By two of our young men, who now
Have ruined her life, as well as their own,
Both boys sad examples of how
Lust can lead to desolation -- so we
Fly south to say sorry, and to bow...

An Unexpected Work Break

I lay back, relax, and admire
The blue sky and clouds,
And the wind caresses my face,
As I'm loaded into the
Ambulance, in front of my place...

Happy Wedlock

The secret to marital bliss
Is to smile, and respond to
"Honey do this."

But take care not to reveal
How you really feel,
DVD the game for later,
It's no big deal.

For only pain and woe
Results from tell her "No,
I'd rather have pizza and watch the game"...
After which, the peace of the
Day, will never be the same.

Flightless Misunderstanding

The dream birds go "Yipes!
We're being stalked by
A big head with stripes!"

"No, wait, he's staring
Not at us!" What a fuss,
A case of mistaken scaring.

Art by Mark Harm Niemeyer

In Memory Of A Child Killed By Her Mother

What is so scary about us
Is that when our internal
Moral gyroscopes break,
Or distort, due to external
Stress, things can coalesce to make
That rare and fearful moment
Where we are made free,
To behave most horribly,
A freedom to act that's always there,
A hidden, unbidden, demon
All of us share...