more is less

too many haiku
each one sparing in its words
false economy

the hardy few

Such people are rare 
Iceland's whole population 
wouldn't fill Oakland

artistic license

  

After Aragorn 
Peter Jackson chose King Kong 
 for the star treatment

dawn, lake george

The laughter of loons 
 thrilling through the morning mists 
 is worth the brief chill

seduced II

selling it as play

 recruiters glamorize war

 to seduce our sons

seduced

As if they were toys 
 recruiters glamorize guns 
 to seduce our sons

Plato's cave

Each in our bubble
sure the world must think like us
irate that it won't

buffoon

Governor Palin 
 found Alaska was too small 
 for her ambitions

upright

Patrick Kennedy 
 won't bend over for the Church 
 to flout his conscience

carom

Bouncing off the moon 
 the sun's light reflects again 
 from the bay's surface

a man of parts

Obama's quick tongue 
 gathered the reins in his fist 
 now let's see his spine

slow learner

  

His three bankruptcy 
 failed to teach George W. 
what a budget is

neutrality

heavenly parent
grant us the wit to expunge
gender from our prayers

the rest is commentary

Brian understood 
"blessed are the Cheesemakers" 
meant the milk-maids, too

beyond tolerance

believers must act 
on their high-falooting words 
beyond tolerance

exceptionalism

denying our roots 
a nation of immigrants 
seeks to slam the door

Leonid shower

piloting this rock
through Temple-Tuttel's debris
one feels quite the ace

values

sly Odysseus
forfeited the quest for fame
died in his wife's arms

dogged

Sirius ain't bright
chasing Orion all year
never giving up

9/11

seizing the excuse
Bush claimed vast war-time powers
to trample the law

weak leonids

night wraps my hill-top
in Faramir's starry cloak
not a photon stirs

out of sight

expanding outwards
photons shift beyond the red
until we're alone

mistaking subjects for citizens

teaching towards the test
educates good test-takers
but bad citizens

transience

the vibrations cease
only memory remains
when she stops singing

weaver's beam

scolding the Chinese
Clinton calls for Civil Rights
she leads with her chin

contraband

ersatz cigarettes
couldn't fool Spanish police
rabbit shit tastes harsh

dualism

platonists propose
souls interact through the flesh
meat marionettes

space

paradoxically
the absence of a dead love
fills the universe

flashback

Branagh and Thompson
back on the screen together
Pirate Radio

pursuit

red demonic eyes
burn in the horses' black skulls
chasing the dreamer

new Lesson set

short days, inversions
the club implores the new foals--run!
the Summer air kicks

Christmas Carol

tales of teshuvah
are woven through Dickens' works
like garments of days

no pigskins in paradise

  

It's hard to deter 
 bombers who blow themselves up 
 dreaming of heaven

defense of liberty II

In a healthy state 
the response to noxious speech 
 is more speech, not gags

theme and variations

Homeo boxes 
 build form from simple repeats 
 body by Lego

KSM

try him in Texas 
 read him his Miranda rights 
 then execute him

defense of liberty

Legitimate states 
answer noxious speech with speech 
tyrants favor gags

putz

  

Lieberman's loyal
to his corporate masters
he speaks for Money

short-sighted II

Beijing's policy
get's ahead but does no good
 "beggar thy neighbor"

short-sighted

Beijing's policy
does well without doing good
 "beggar thy neighbor"

malice

  

what's up with deer-flies?
 wouldn't one leave more offspring
 if bites didn't hurt?

profiling

beware those Capris
pants hemmed above the ankle
mark the Jihadist

surprise

contemplate a ship
travelling faster than light
images follow

a lawyer's heart

Some were great causes 
 the rest he did for the fee 
 Dershowitz won't tell

Leonids

  

Flashes trace our path 
 crashing through the comet's tail 
 autumnal light-show

culture

what one teaches kids
contributes to their fitness
as sure as their genes

v'shinantam

their educations
 alter kids indelibly
 as signets mark wax

where there is no dough...

some were great causes
the rest, he took for the fee
Dershowitz won't tell

entangled

Even Robert Byrd 
 can't defend coal forever 
 both should be buried

harmony

History has shown 
 monotheist state regimes 
 stoke intolerance

discounted

Don't look too loyal 
 you'll be taken for granted 
 next election day

memorial

On armistice day 
we mark the death of the dream 
that we can end war

fertilizer

 half a mega-ton 
 makes a lot of IEDs 
 when it's spread around

who's there?

Some therapists doubt 
 the unity of the self 
but they're all crazy

everything for a price

sedentary plants
co-opt us to spread their genes
for a piece of fruit

tragedy of the commons

Enjoy the parkland 
 litter it with shards of glass 
you're American

nomen est omen

fat Americans 
 found a champion for their cause 
professor Bacon

improbable Endeavor

One battered life-boat 
 at the British Museum 
 Shackleton's "James Caird"

the Dark Side

Picture Dick Cheney 
 screaming like a little girl 
 Does the heart good, no?

these are not the droids you're looking for

First-rate parasites 
lull their hosts to ignore them 
Jedi mosquito

compulsory testing

 A rabies assay
 might have kept Richard Cheney
 out of the White House

ineffable

Too subtle for words 
 evoking nothing at all 
Mark Rothko's painting

11/7/09

  

Sun pierces her veil 
 such a bride can't be hidden 
 pearls gleam in her hair

foiled

  

His gallant gesture 
 foundered on her fashion's rocks 
open-toe slippers

rationale

Blaming the victim 
 makes exploiters feel better 
 empathy be damned

more lies

Ann Coulter promised
 she would campaign for Clinton
her word isn't good

heal thyself

Afraid of Iraq Hasan set a course for Death and took his buddies

lie down with dogs, rise up with fleas

A corrupt regime 
 can taint its allies as well 
 in Afghanistan

wrong sense

  

linens and silver 
 can't make my meal taste better 
 I came for the food

history's judgement

  

Impotent leader 
offering toothless reforms 
Karzai's legacy

all talk

Impotent leader 
offering toothless reforms 
 Karzai's promise fades

same old rut

  

Torrents of hormones 
addle a buck's tiny brain 
each Fall, puberty!

history doesn't repeat, but it rhymes

  

Each bubble and crash 
 rides the same wave of bullshit 
"this time is different"

business of war

Rumsfeld valued men 
 like our most precious assets 
 amortized to nought

what does he see in the mirror?

  

 Mugabe's ego -
may yet suck Zimbabwe dry 
 tick? spider? lamprey?

deluded

 While his nation dies 
 what does the mirror show him? 
 Mugabe the just?

so brief

  

Lit up by his match 
 a smoker's face flares to life 
 them fades to darkness

Pilate washed his hands

Abdullah withdrew 
 Karzai calls that a clean win 
"clean" is undefined

motives

Brilliant achilles 
swore no oath to save Helen 
 he just  came to fight

wait...I know that story

Vergil's Aeneid 
verges on plagiarism 
Homer's kids should sue

Halloween IV

  

Vampires, ghosts and ghouls 
 mocking the darkness of death 
pig out on candy

honest politician II

To serve insurers 
more than his constituents 
Joe sold his good name

honest politician I

To serve insurers
 more than his constituents 
Lieberman turns tricks

politicians' honor

  

To fund their campaigns 
 senators are bought and sold 
 as loyal as whores

Prosperity Theology II

Jesus never taught 
 that wealth marks the virtuous 
Reagan made that up

Prosperity Theology I

  

grifters love Ghana 
 you can set up your own church 
and get rich at it

modesty

clothes communicate
ethnicity and status
angels don't need them

subtle boundary

"what's the difference 
between sects and cults, guru ?"
 "heretic! You die!"

left behind

Relics of the past 
compact discs and buggy whips
 retailers' tar-pits

diet

Twenty-one meat meals 
 fuel an american's week 
 wasteful to the bone

National Security Letters II

pile "prior restraint"

 on "unreasonable search"

 NSLs amok

National Security Letters

When "prior restraint"
 hides "unreasonable search"
 NSLs amok

meet the new boss...

 Eric holder says: 
 "trust us, we're not like George Bush!" 
 just how, isn't clear

Kekulé redux

Frustrated glove-maker

Dreams of new knitting technique –

Beats rational thought

GOP

United in 'no' 
 one day, they'll have to tell us 
 what it is they're for

used and discarded

Pat Tillman's body 
 was desecrated in death 
 for propaganda

entropy wins

 Like dead fallen leaves 
 laundry rustles underfoot 
 a teenager's room

within you, without you...

Without outside tools 
 using just our intellect 
 can we know our minds?

slurred

Blunt head injury 
 leads to deaths in the drunk-tank 
 cops don't understand

mother's wisdom

Barbara Bush warned us 
George wasn't her brightest son 
 but he smiles real nice

lost in the woods

Wolves howl with delight
when the children of asphalt 
 go mushroom hunting

so Right, so wrong

eight years of failures 
nailed down Dick's bona fides
to advise Barack

Asking for rigor 
all I get are faith-statements
 no one's satisfied

cold comfort II

Your garment of days 
woven of a lifetime's deeds 
 warms you in the grave

marketing

 news is a gimmick
 bringing viewers to networks
they live to sell ads

memorial

 Your garment of days 
 woven of a lifetime's deeds 
 outlasts flesh and bone

ivory tower

Slow on the up-take
the savants at U of O
found that sex is good

tantalized

half a memory 
eludes my full attention 
lurking in shadow

infantilized

Cast out of eden 
Dumbo without his feather 
 it's called adulthood

power to change

 More than armed revolt 
 Darwin's dangerous idea 
 frightens theocrats

third language

 Mandarin's frontier 
so much closer than Tibet 
 it's in chinatown

ivory tower

A little too late 
 scientists at UofO 
showed that sex is good

truth is beauty

 "fine" or "performing"
 arts share one criterion:
Do they make you feel?

chosen

Pity bangladesh! 
 nature's laboratory 
testing disasters

the Right to Arm Bears

Ursine weaponry:

Does the Second Amendment

Justify bad puns?

shibboleth

 "the Right to Bear Arms" 
 Rorschach test in just five words 
 tells me who you are

something familiar...

throw all Shakespeare's plots
into a giant blender
out comes Cymbeline

volition counts

God clearly abhors
all consensual gay love
Molestation? fine.

mute witness

Valiantly striving 
 to show the wind that trashed them 
 the ghosts of windsocks

yellow jackets II

 Still batting clean-up 
 scavengers of dinosaurs 
 now live on hotdogs

Yellow jackets

 once, dinosaur flesh 
 how are the mighty fallen! 
now they eat hotdogs

scavenger

Once, they ate mammoths 
 now, yellow jackets settle 
 for your hamburger

morally bankrupt

eight years of George Bush
has impoverished the U.S.
only his friends won

CLAW

First, Gell-Mann warns us -
get a Crude Look At the Whole 
 details will blind you

clearer than ever

 Inscrutable film 
 by Joel and Ethan Coen 
 first, understand Job

Papal outreach

Welcome Anglicans! 
 if you are intolerant 
 you can be Catholic

beyond our design

So much DNA 
encoding our olfaction 
predates settled life

trainable

 Fifteen thousand years 
 favored humans who like dogs 
and dogs who like us

cats are hard on birds

rather than gazelles
some cheetahs hunt ostriches 
we call that "culture"

web of fate

Cutting and weaving 
 he entwines his destiny 
 with the worst drivers'

damnation

Dante keeps a place 
 for those who carve golf courses 
 out of the desert

Bakersfield II

Dimly, through the murk 
nodding donkeys slurp up crude 
 must be Bakersfield

of sense and cents

Maine's recovery 
relies on "Stealth Destroyers" 
whatever those are

moral hazard

Profits and losses 
 keep bankers' wagers honest 
 unless they're bailed out

spirits

When he's off the horse 
 Santana's muse deserts him 
self-indulgent noise

Om

Turn off your cell phone 
 feel the sand between your toes 
 risk hearing nothing

meet the new boss

Through their man Geithner 
 malefactors of great wealth 
 take care of their own

bleach

 Far too many blondes 
 grace California's beaches 
 defying their genes

remote

Visit el Cajon! 
 drive to the end of the earth
turn left, keep going

ball mill

Surf churns the cobbles 
 grinding like an ogre's teeth 
 on Doheny beach

Bakersfield

South of Cajon pass 
I emerge into daylight 
 as if waking up

loyal to a fault

Too many voters 
are voting for their home-team 
 instead of thinking

spectacular

Malibu's grand homes 
 teeter on the precipice 
 poised for the next storm

edgy II

nacreous luster 

dances on a fine knife's edge 

polished martensite

edgy

Pearly gray luster 
dances on a fine knife's edge 
polished martensite

scum

Smelting metal ore
the dross rises to the top 
 like politicians

never mind the crocs...

Our new immigrants 
 giant snakes in Florida 
learn a new diet

invisible

ride motorcycles 
 as if no one knows you're there 
 too often, it's true

beyond function

Damascus steel knives 
 burnished like fine jewelery 
 make fetishists drool

emission controls

When you run cattle 
 on a hi-test fuel like grain 
 the gas could kill you

knee-deep

 Augean feed-lots 
stink unto very heaven 
I'll have the tofu

determined

 libido's a ploy
 by which our genes replicate
 where's "free will" in that?