Feeding Time

Morning at the garbage placement
Spot, where crows eviscerate
The plastic bags, and feed on
What they don't obliterate,
The sidewalk soon a scene of
Chaos: detritus, bones, wait
For the Mama-san with her
Broom to set things straight...

There, Not Here

Stuck at his desk
Wishing
He was on a lake
Fishing

必殺仕事人

A victim of injustice, or evil
Acts of bad men, can pay
To get revenge, get justice,
Through a darkened way,
Shigoto-nin assassins will,
Carry out a vigilante task,
Using technique and skill,
On the villains they kill...

Toddler's Payback

Even thick athletic socks
Don't help when you
Tread on Lego blocks,
Which were ordered to
Be put back in their box,
But weren't, and now
It's all about dealing,
With the pain your
Poor feet are feeling...

Ambush Ready

Lying quiet in the jungle heat,
Crocodile on the river bank,
Waiting to attack and eat...

School Of Life

Some of us studied hard to learn
About history, science, and math,
Others didn't, and now spend their
Time drinking in the Jacuzzi bath...

Before The Mast

A powerful man is the ship's
Commander and master,
Yet he cannot order the wind
To make his vessel go faster...

Running On Empty

Years already lived, now number
Many more than those ahead,
What remains being actuarial,
Numbers of hope and dread,
Remaining years to be insured,
Or better left to chance instead...

春一番

Blown, brown leaves scatter,
February's wind sweeping,
Clean, one's teeth left to chatter,
Shivering glimpses of sunlight's
Warming not enough to matter...

The Big Cold

January sunshine fails
To warm, or unfreeze,
The recipients
Of an arctic breeze,
Only the daffodils
Seem at ease....

八咫烏

In ancient times, an Emperor fought
To establish the country of Yamato,
-- Which eons later became Japan --
Using the power of a 3-legged crow...

介護施設

Old Japanese man,
In a home for the decayed,
Muses about green mountains,
Sunshine in a verdant glade,
As he has his bedding changed
By a Southeast Asian maid,
He strives so hard to go away
To where dreams might convey...

Breitbart?

Tune in to the daily news
Can't seem to do otherwise
The battle of opposing views
Alternative facts and lies
Which, together, truth abscise...

Carpe Diem

A brand new day to seize,
Quest for fame and cash,
I am ready for adventure,
But first, take out the trash...

The Show Must Go On

In a foreign land, separated by
Time and space, from home,
But it plays out under the same sky,
Language, costumes, different
But the same rules of theatre apply...

Roll Of The Dice

Expect the unexpected,
And if nothing special happens,
Best to leave it undetected...

Nebraska

The American Desert, not sand, but grass,
Stretches out to the horizon, before me,
The progeny of North Europe refugees,
Fishermen at that, who sailed to be free
From the chains of indentured tyranny,
They traveled to this flat fertile land,
A place, with no fish, in a prairie sea,
And those who could survive the winter
And a lethal boredom, live successfully...

(Photo by Geoffrey M. Hamilton, 1955-2011)

3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment

Sometime the watch is hard,
But regardless, it is always
Stood, by the Old Guard...

Mirror Image

After the nighttime rains and storm,
Stars gleam, like reflected jewels, on
The surface of the puddles they form...

27 JAN x 61

Out the door I go, propelled by a less than
Enthusiastic send-off from my wife,
Into a January twenty-seventh, and the
Reality of what has come to be my life:
Sixteen hours until my next sleep,
Full of banal errands, and micro-risks,
And I pray the gods my soul to keep...

Arboreal Passing

Was it the January wind,
Which made the old friend
Fall, or roots giving in to
Wet rottenness, in the end,
All gone now, the branches
In which nests were made,
And, come the warmer times
Same thing for the shade,
An old friend of a tree,
Quietly provided for me...

WW-I Soldiers Were Screwed

We bought a bunch of red wine,
In the French village, and then
Went back to the trench line,
Where we guzzled rum, and went
Over the top, all feeling fine,
And sedated, to dull the fear of
The death, the bullets assign...

Millennial Revolutionary

He wanted to make a statement about
His angst towards the new president
So he pushed over a trash can, and
Then away from the scene he went,
But not before making sure
Cameras recorded the heroic event...

Fishing Explained

The lure is tied to the line,
And dropped into the drink,
To fool fish, who take a look,
As if the fish could think,
Before swallowing the hook...

Figure It Out

How many brain cells can I offer,
To be consumed, serially, per
The dictates of those who would
Suck up all my DNA, vice err,
About what we consume, and shit,
More than I can ever defer
To another time, another place,
Brain cells, and warm wondrous
Memories, abandoned in space...

- - - - - - - - - -

Revised version:

https://commonpoemsandrhymes.wordpress.com/2017/01/17/figure-it-out/