2017 -- Happy New Year!

Politics, red or blue,
Wash all over me
Through and through,
Electronic yells and lies
All delivered, via
I-Phone, to my eyes,
And I am sucked into
The BS before I realize...

Chimay

Belgian monks brewed
A wonderful beer,
Drink it, and believe
In what's not here...

The sweet bitter
Taste, the subtle fizz,
Forget where, what,
The monastery is...

Do You Matter

It is a form of common sense
To know that your life's meaning
Is different than its relevance...

Reflection

All the days of my life,
Spent through time and space
And chaos, have brought
Me to this moment and place,
Where I pause as memories
Unravel and discase...

To Be A Warrior

The aging warrior strikes a pose,
Clad in his burnished bloodied bronze,
His face both fierce and comatose...

He holds in his hand a lethal sword,
The blade which cut and killed so long,
Back in the fabled days with the Horde...

The warrior's body is scarred and lean,
His smile, though, disappeared years ago,
Only a grimace remains to be seen...

In battle he grips the heavy sword,
His gritty muscles straining,
He raises the blade for a killing stroke,
To cleave the foes remaining...

He brings the steel edge crashing down,
In a moment of visceral splendor,
And sanity, like the crushed skull bleeds,
By the bloody boots of death's vendor...

In a much different place, a pale youth waits,
Reading, in the silo's control room,
Armed and waiting for the order to push,
The red bottom marked "Big Boom",
In the dim light the warrior officer sits,
She wears no armor, carries no sword,
And tries not to cry when the missile hits...

A Verse From Back In The 1970s

Look out for the hawk perched up on the door,
Try to ignore that talons might tear
The flesh from the back of your naked neck,
Walk on for a while, Hey, what the heck...

Watch out for the beggar who asks for more,
Try not to look at the scum in his hair,
He already knows how his alms will be spent,
His eyes are sharp, but his spirit bent...

Beware pf the blue-painted sailors' whore,
Watch her hips sway, but try not to stare,
She'll lick and kiss you, and boil your blood,
Then drag your soul through the city mud...

Keep track of the worms that feed in the sore
That rots the dark neighborhoods everywhere,
Keep hold of your wallet, your ass, and your heart,
Don't fool with your fate, you're not that smart...

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...