Military Loss In Peacetime

In the line of duty
They have died...

It is a tough thing,
Relentlessly applied,
Duty's "line"...

It is unforgiving,
And will assign
What must be carried out,
No way to avoid what
It will bring about...

Duty's hard-ass line,
Grinding meat
As the fates incline...

Autumn Dementia

The clouds are streak-blown white,
Same winds muss-up the hair,
Also white, of a lost old woman,
Who seems to have forgotten where
She was going, and when and why,
Windswept, she wanders in circles
Under a cold November sky...

Church Life

Faith and doubt come in waves
Sermons bray, the frightened pray,
Pay your tithes, Jesus saves...

My Japanese Apartment

I live in a box, within a box, within a box,
Made mostly of steel and concrete,
Along with other multi-storied boxes
Lining a typical Japanese city street,
Here and there hostage trees stand,
Reminders of nature’s retreat
From the box invasion, and now
It’s the weeds which live and compete...

Temporary

Our days are
Evanescent,
Gone before we
Know where they went...

Navy Life

Wake up, get on your feet,
Dress, eat,
Stand watch,
Sleep, and repeat...

Public Discourse 2017

Fake news,
The product of
Opposing views,
Less able to agree
Than accuse,
The results for
Reporters to use...

Sartre Would Be Proud

Another day in front of me
Full of potential
Absolutely empty & free...

Dawn Cries

Quiet cool transition to a
November's morning light
Crows' calling farewell
To the fade-way night...

After Losing

When disappointment
Casts a pall
Better to go to sleep
And feel nothing at all

Halloween II

Candles’ light
From carved pumpkins
Glows orange in the night
Candies ransom
Forstalling fright

Halloween

Arriving from somewhere
Ghosts and spirits swirl
In the cool October air...

Small And Alien-Looking

Mantis, mantis,
For what do you pray?
It stares up at me,
But will not say...

While Others Are At Work

Mid-morning at the grocery store
And it’s a geriatric shopping spree
Hunting and gathering nutrients
Old folks as far as the eye can see
All quiet and determined
Grandpa, grandma, retiree...

Memory Of Shade Tree

Where the old tree used to be,
Is now a circle of brown,
And it's easy enough to see
There in the middle of the green,
The lawn now absent of shade,
Birds lost the sanctuary
The leaves and branches made...

Where the old tree stood
The grasses do not grow,
But the breeze flows freely,
And I wonder if they know,
The birds, who wing across,
Above where the tree used to be,
About its absence, about our loss...

Insect Destiny

Ants and humans, respectively,
Have similarities, when
Looked at perspectively,
But ants, working mostly unseen,
Will inherit the Earth, as long
As they have their queen...

Need To Know

The security clerk asks if
I have a "need to know,"
I wonder which "need"
She refers to though,
The curious one which wants to feed,
Or just for admin apropos...   

Tiny Courage

The sparrow hops on tiny legs,
Bouncing near, it stops and begs,
Braving human contact in
Support of nest and eggs...

Governance

Politicians pander
To their base
Spewing propagander

But real leaders
Few and wise
Hammer out
A compromise

Mount Fuji Dialogue

I am flying over to Tokyo,
To join in a conference
With some others I know,
Who are deemed experts,
And therefore get paid, for
Business class seats,
And after arrival in Japan,
It's all sake and sushi eats,
According to the plan
Made by Japanese, who
Know better, but they can
Rationalize the follow-through
For a foreign experts caravan...

Chance Occurence

Sometimes you just have to wait,
What will happen, will happen,
All according to karma, fate...

Nebraska Clouds

East Coast city dude, and
West Coast suburbanite,
Have no clue about the
Big nothing, the sight
Of a god-like sky,
Viewed from a flat place 
Where ancient cranes fly...

(Photograph by Geoffrey Hamilton, 1955-2011)

Toward The End

The days of her golden years:
Basically a deposition
Of actions and fears
Experienced in repetition,
Moments like waves
Undulating forward to reach,
And then crash on,
Some future empty beach...

Ancient Instincts

Modern men at desks and stuck
In traffic, more and more,
Wish they were back in a
Forest, chasing wild boar,
Hunting like they did
Many centuries before...

濡れ落ち葉

He gazes at the leaves
Some yellow, some brown
They fall in confusion
The tired leaves come down
And they eventually settle
On the cold wet ground
He thinks about those leaves
And does not make a sound...