Shipwreck On Sea Of Grass

There is nothing to shield the cold
Wind, cutting across the plains,
Blast-eroding the old, brown
Knot-wood walls ... all that remains
Of a farmer's fierce, failed, try,
To build a bit of Europe,
Under a pitiless prairie sky...

Garden Survival

The songbirds in the garden
Suddenly go quiet-still,
As a hawk patrols over,
Looking for a kill.

The backyard assumes
A life or death feel,
As feathered ones avoid
Becoming a meal.

But the hawk will always
Hunt relentlessly,
Nature's original version
Of a Raptor UAV.

The Wages Of Gridlock

We, the loyal and affected,
Will stay at home for a day
Each week, without pay...
As has been directed
By the Capitol of our nation,
Which is broken and infected
By a thing called "sequestration".

Impermeable

How awful it is to realize,
Hearing your voice as you do
The chores, and when your eyes
Meet mine -- to know you are
A stranger, and I cannot possess
You fully, ever, for it is a far
Distance that separates us,
Who are as close as can be,
Fenced and separated by skin
We journey together, intimately,
Yet always separated from within.

Our Hidden Yearning

All of us, having survived the strain
And brutal shock of being born,
Grow-up to become adults, yet remain
Subconsciously alone, and quietly yearn
For those years after birth, when
We were held and hugged, by the
Strong arms our parents had back then.

Special Fleeting Moment

There's a way to stop time,
The only one I know:
It happens when I hug you
Long and hard -- before I go.

Some Kind Of Optimism

It's best to think
Bigger ideas first,
Lest they later shrink
Under a bad day's press,

Strive to ensure they
Emerge from the mess
Intact -- Good big ideas
Of hope and happiness.

Kitchen Delight

A moan of pleasure,
Almost a swoon,
Licking the cookie dough
Off of the spoon.

Silver Bullets Out Of The Ocean

Darting, bursting up and out of the sea,
Lifted by gleaming fin-wings into the wind
Over the waves, the flying fish is momentarily
A bird -- gliding Swallow-like, skimming
The frothy blue-green ocean, free
For an instant, from the hold of the deep,
It glitters metallic, then drops suddenly
Back to being a fish getting ready to leap.

Government Official

A bureaucrat bows to those above,
But lords it over those below,
And wields like a king, a limited power,
By citing rules, and saying "No".

Girl's Day In Japan

The pattern of her kimono
Is as exquisite in detail
As the make-up on her face.  

Somewhere South Of Kabul

Digging a desert hole, so I don't get shot,
I am tired, but once it's done, I will lay
Down to rest, safe in the dirt, and will swat
Away the scorpions and look up at the
Stars, then fall into exhausted asleep, not
Aware of much besides a need to survive
The battles that have yet to be fought.

Haru Ichiban 春一番

I take off my coat, walking outside
In what was supposed to be
Cold, again the weatherman lied...
And a spring storm is blowing
Hope, as the warm and cold collide.

The Power Of Ink On Paper

The cloth-bound book
Grasped in an old man's
Hands, has the look,
With its tattered corners,
Of something perused
Consistently by aging
Eyes, its contents used
To sooth a geezer's raging
Against the ending of
The day, his mind waging
War against the thief
Who steals his memories,
The book is his hope, his relief.

Self Reflection

A mirror does not lie.
But it also can't control,
Distortion by the viewer's eye.

The Reality Of Marriage

Stand-off at the dinner table,
Near the end of supper...
We slow down our chewing,
Refusing to cede the upper
Hand to the other, knowing
Whoever gets up first has
To do the dishes, owing
To a rule we can't remember making,
But now there's no breaking
It, which has settled into our life
As loving husband and wife.

The Tactile Wisdom Of Simians

The key to carrying lots of food,
Is to balance and maximize,
Each according to its size,
While remembering, as you
Lope, the law of gravity applies...

"Curiosity's" Quest

Immense and total silence under the stars,
Where a wheeled remote-controlled robot,
Drills for the first time, into a rock on Mars...
It carries the best technology, and dreams,
Of beings far, far away, who want to find
Hope, in ancient, dried-up, Martian streams...
For if there was once was water there,
It could imply they are not alone, and
There might be Earth-life out somewhere
On a distant place the gods gave air.

As Seen On The Evening News

The approach of a storm
Provides a chance,
For weather reporters
To preen and prance,
And declare to all
That the sky will fall...

False Spring

The wind comes out
Of the North, and
Removes any doubt,
As to whether
Winter is still about...

Fours Walls And A Roof

Silent thanks mumbled in my head
As I walk in the door and out of the cold,
Soon to warm-up and get dry, instead
Of spending some kind of homeless
Icy survival experience huddled
Over a trash barrel fire, or rolling
Myself into a newspaper ball
Under a bridge, barely controlling
The shivering, wedged against a
Lonely hopeless wall of concrete...
So, yes, thanks for a warm room,
Vice eking-it-out on a winter's street.

On Time Arrival

Roger glide-slope, flaps are down,
Lowering altitude and speed,
I'm just about to land on my
Bed, for my peaceful evening read.

The Cost Of Creation

I do not feel pain,
But sadness instead,
As pieces of my brain,
In the form of words,
Fly onto the screen:
Fluttering thought-birds
Landing on the clean
White expanse, where
Nothing was before,
As clear as the winter air.

And On The Seventh Day...

Dying light of a slow
Sunday afternoon,
Moments of comfort,
But ending too soon,
Is this day of rest...
Fading into evening as
The sun sinks in the west,
A lazy, peaceful Sunday,
Leaving me alone to
Face the pain of Monday.

Chelyabinsk

A meteor will fall where it will,
Unstoppable, and undetected,
Its impact will blast and kill
The things that fate has selected.