roman redux

bread and circuses
the timeless means of control
for modern empires

Point of view

The crab judges me:
"tasty!, if not so alive"
I size up the crab

equine psychology

Grass? Not-grass? Ha! No!
Wolves see in dualities.
Prey just groks it all.

Too abstract

Models like scarecrows
anorexia enshrined
fashion disfunction

elegance achieved

Measure thrice, cut once,
and solve ten thousand problems:
engineering's goal.

Attachments

We leave as we came
naked, speechless, powerless.
In between, we crave.

double oops

"So, nice vacation?"
"I was in the hospital."
cancerous faux pas

"Freud's not in, sorry ..."

Old socks on fire

and my boss blames me for it

weird dreams last night

Donated

Bruno's Xtralite
I strain to lift this glider.
Can an anvil fly?

disappointing

one hundred twenty
parents learning about schools
none of them are black

Mismatch

Chop sticks and flat plate
chasing rice around the dish
torture for round-eyes

Free will

Acquit the poor boy!
Teens can't be responsible
testosterone is.

Art

Some phillistines say:
art should always be pretty.
Dip them in pink tar.

The nineties, explained

Meritocracy?
No, the scum also rises:
sometimes to the top.

branding

habeus corpus
meaningless latin to most
not rotting in jail

Breakfast on acid

Steaming grey-brown mound
as if I'd already puked
biscuits and gravy

Point of view

The crab judges me:
"tasty, if not so alive"
I size up the crab.

gotham nights

boots, cape and black tights
batman's secret in plain view:
he cares for young dick ...

natural selection

What makes a pilot?
Ability? Persistence?
Seems random to me ...

Arrogance

George W Bush
seeks pardon but won't resign.
Worse than Dick Nixon.

root causes

TV transforms our
postmodern electorate
into bleating sheep

fashion

knotting a neat tie
I labor towards discomfort
quite masochistic

Misfit

Butts ooze off the seats
flabby arms squish their neighbors.
Blimps should not ride planes.

Beliefs

"liberty or death!"
We used to stand for something.
We can stand again.

Dogs know

A dog smells, and knows.
A man sees, but doubts his eyes.
Thought defeats knowledge.

limits

humans try to get
inside the mind of a cow
but find there's no room

between wasps and sharks

George double-u Bush
first CEO president
makes lawyers look good

War on terror

Soros spoke tonight
still says "no cause for despair,
if we speak our mind"

phoenix

peak oil afterglow
a post-commercial eden
rises from ashes

burning joy

desert midday heat
a post-commercial eden
rises from the dust

Wrights' wrong

Turbines chew the sky
dodging lift, spewing exhaust
so unlike a bird

fat rats

shoulder-deep in grass
deer seem to swim in my yard
like antlered hippos

No, but you may want to

Daybreak thru cobwebs
drags me back to consciousness.
Can hangovers kill?

levitating bricks

Turbines shred the air
making noise and dodging lift.
Can one call this flight?

typical

Ready for my flight
but there's no plane at the gate
Hurry up and wait.

loyalty

Bush clings to Rumsfeld
while condemnations pile up.
Heck of a job, Don!

Breaking up

I can't hang with this.
She's a beautiful snowboard,
but she has no sole.

follower

Eric calls it "steep" ...
maybe I'll find my own piste.
I don't belong here.

nothing left to lose

So liberating
to travel with my hands free
bags lost in transit

Gazing out

Frustration gnaws me
Clouds cap snowy mountain peaks...
outside this airport

6am flight

Grey airport morning
bags checked, passport checked, gate found
brain still somewhere else

psychedelic history

the revolution
was institutionalized
by the Grateful Dead

poetic justice

Storm finds the suburbs
Roots tear free from rain-soaked earth
Tree crushes hummer.

Black Eagle: 30 mph SSE

Convection with wind
Awesome? Fearsome? Maybe both?
Fluffy clouds skid past.

V

apathetic sheep
surrender their liberties
and deserve the wolf

thermal

Wanda beckons me
sun-baked rocks release their oomph
earth spurts me skywards

air-gasm

More sun bakes the earth
the lower air spurts skywards
ooh that felt so good

Courage

Chicken-shit Congress
licks the executive's boots.
Feingold in oh eight

Winning stratagem

Barren daffodils
have lots of flamboyant sex
and never worry

you may already have won

Darwin tells a tale
of dead-end experiments
we're the rare winners

weird weather

hail in the east bay
why do we deserve such joy?
global climate change

sunday

Approaching cold front
stokes our hopes of convection
but we just get wet

big basin bbq

soaring redwood trees
glare at their brethren's slaughter:
vegetable kabobs

artless

"Episode One" showed
cinematic artistry
had sunk to zero

Get it in writing

Sunday was cut short
by an angry dog walker
and Cliff's verbal writ

All is vanity

Berkeley bowl patrons
use the finest stuff to hide
ground turkey patties

Marina morning

Wind south at zero
morning air stable as death
gulls disdain to fly

Sleight of hand

Bluffing and wheedling
rather than engage the facts
Bush pushes the lie

lost soul

too late to be heard
Colin Powell found his voice:
"prisoners have rights"

Stability

Brachiating worked
Gravity kept us upright.
Now we risk toppling.

collaboration?

five years afterwards
accomplished none of our aims
all of Osama's

playa

Our burning future
a post-apocalyptic
desert shantytown

you can sleep when you're dead

Death? Death is only
one hell of a hangover
after life's party!

peak experience

Sitting on Whitney
I could be higher
cloud base at 18

intelligent design?

Our receptors are tickled
by an amphetamine buzz
did god ordain that?

tomwaits redux

It's Saturday night
sex and drugs and rock and roll
yes, life is alright ...

groundbound

Go a 100k
the hard way: pedal power
mocked by fluffy Q's ...

kid outside a candy store

Nose pressed to the glass
mocked by fluffy candy clouds
lick my chops and whine ...

better on the ground

South at thirty-five
ripped from the mazurka launch
flung across the sky

loyal

Nader's crazy claim:
both parties are just the same!
No opposition ...

buggered

Specter's anal kink
guiding Bush's spy-missile up
America's ass

wordsmithing

showers of haiku

struck from a tormented soul

kindle strangers' minds

lost values

"Liberty or Death"
became "full-time surveillance"
Republican con game

launch

permanence achieved
writing upon the aether
mobile haiku lives!

childhood

running and screaming
after invisible ghosts
midgets on acid

parent's ripost

look, Curious George
has loss, redemption, and love:
a toddler classic!

Marketing

more Hollywood crap.
infantilized audience
is taught to want it

Motivation

craving hamachi
we left the sea, our first home
and got knives and rice

Bibliophobic

averse to the truth,
Gonzales snubs the senate
who'll prosecute him?

Cache Revisited

Guilt over algiers
haunts the French electorate
mais on n'en parle pas

Policy or prejudice

witholding condoms
the Right drives teen pregnancy.
naive? Or evil?

Cache Review

Algerian guilt
haunts the French electorate
but they name it not

First smile

An eyebrow arcs up
and we impute emotion
or else its just gas

humble pie

redtail tumbling
through leeside canyon rotor
avian mastery

Poker on credit

gambling in Iraq
Bush stakes our name on vengeance.
the republic folds

Whores

senators line up
like flies around carrion
reaching for money

Rudderless

liberty or death
we used to stand for something
now we have lost it

Learning

basking in hot tub
seals, whales and hippos teach me
buoyant truths of sloth

original truths

comtemplating whales
I'm buoyed in hot water
my spirit guide chills

stonewall

like a scared limpet
when sea otters are prowling
Bush clings to office

extinction

megafauna gone;

hungry man has no conscience

all gone since Clovis

Individuation

formed by peer pressure
prisoner of fashion trends
what's a teen, alone?

cool

mounting albedo
as snow reflects more sunlight
our perfect snowglobe

narnian subtext

i'm so unworthy
how could god love lowly me?
the film stinks of guilt

genesis

witch versus lion
a fundamentalist tale
evil as saddam

Narnia film

intrusive soundtrack
evokes mawkish emotion
passion of Aslan

Coup

petty senate fools
distract us from the great crime
our birthright stolen

philistines

Saw the hermitage
exhibit at venetian
fucking incredible

ruined

ugly as a wart
but just give vegas some time
a splendid ruin!

runway bride

a short wedding dress
can be quirky without sleaze
sometimes it's just fun

cheers!

toasts by sundry friends
bind the couple with new bonds:
shared embarrassment

profound

strive to understand:

no depth; a 2-D culture

blonde is a lifestyle

Americana

vegas wedding date
stripteasing bride on the pole
lapdancing bridesmaids

spotless mind

Endless dust and sand
such an exhorbitant price
for eternal sun

beauty

anorexic wraiths
distorted with silicone
keep the bars creepy

attract

fat people smoking
seem to exude, nay exhale
the lure of vegas

peanut gallery

drake's bay likes southeast
excellent start for new year's
you just need some stones

drake's squall

break between the storms
stiff southeast screams up steep slopes
what good's sixty knots?

less than super

Look, up in the air!
It's a bird, a plane, a frog ...
sack of potatoes!

somewhat later that same night

Tequila haiku:
You motherfucking shithead!
I and I kill you!

first shot

Is your mastery
deep enough? Ineffable ...
tequilla haiku!

cipher

Is it possible?
Perfect undistorting lens
a soundless haiku

bomb scare

'The bomb' : frijoles
fermenting slowly, surely
in Kurtis's gut

zen

rub and rub and rub
polish with all of your might
wordless perfection

higher ground

snow line at 5k
ascend the frigid snowy peaks
rise above the rain

Centering

When you're up on bank
but your vario goes hush
search towards your low wing

Meteorology

Flat-bottomed heaven
rising thermal shown to us
cumulus forming

don't drink the water

i kneel at the throne
straining to puke my guts out
was it the tacos?

self-conscious

recursive haiku
verse about verse about verse
where does it all end?

dolce vita

landed by the lake
the breeze is warm the beer cold
valle de bravo

epidemiology

sharing the air
four hundred strangers trade germs
the airline plague

upswing

winter depression
relents with lengthening days
we've passed the solstice

craft

words jostle and shove
like stones tumbling in the surf
slow birth of a jewel

refining

the stones in a stream
are not polished smoother than
a perfect haiku

Poisoned

Like starfish feeding
I strain to evert my gut
tainted sandwiches

First lesson

Limit your imputs
be a sack of potatoes
let the glider fly

truth is where you find it

In wine you find truth
in thermals you find updrafts
in tequila--worms

In the limit

Absurd refinement
a poem polished to naught
zero syllables

bomb scare

Your warning is apt
i will ride up tomorrow
in the other truck

Know yourself

My heart leaps with joy
when my vario sings out
I am Pavlov's dog

Sunglasses

Cool shades show your soul
by obscuring your features
like cars for your face

Meaning

Grok mortality
there is no great hereafter
make your joy here now

woof!

Snowdrifts beckoning

inner golden retriever

barks, "come out and play!"

blech

Waves of nausea
break across my damp fevered brow
winter flu season

Theology

Endless talk of god
can't take you into heaven
like a phat thermal

slang

"wimp": used by posers
without proper surf-cult cred
they say "pussy" here

test

Testing one two three
This is nothing but a test
There's no haiku here.

beachbreak

Bodybreaking surf
hectic triple-high reef break
mean north shore storm swell

going numb

Surprise of the week:
there were secret prison camps.
Where is the outrage?