packaging

Roland Burris lends 

 a veneer of probity 

 to Blago's new scam

such an honor!

 back-hand compliment

 Burris gets a senate seat

 tainted by Blago

out, out damned spot!

the hard work follows 

 full deBushification 

 takes more than our votes

New moon

 now only stars shine 

 the moon hangs between the sun 

 and our vantage point

cold comfort

 In good times or bad

 there are truths that never change 

 politicians lie

overshadowed

While denying death 

 how can we grasp other truths 

 that tread more gently?

everything is political

Shirking influence 

 release of "Milk" was delayed 

 to court an oscar 

in hard times

new store in the 'hood 

 Humpry Slocombe serves ice cream 

 pretty damn fancy

malefactors

Mated with malice 

staggering incompetence 

 defined Cheney's reign

Unprecedented

 recursive logic 

 real through-the-looking-glass stuff 

 citing bush v. Gore

Unprecedented

 recursive logic 

 real through-the-looking-glass stuff 

 citing bush v. Gore

just shoot me

Cheney's sycophants 

subverted our government 

and grew rich on it 

alien forms

Haiku's inventor

must have had seven digits

on his middle hand

potent mix

Christmas night traffic 

 merry drunks contest the road 

 with enraged in-laws

Recursion

Bush v. Gore set forth 

 law that makes no precedent 

 and so it's cited

the powers that be

 Invested in pork 

 Pelosi's seniority 

 frustrates real deep change

non-stop

You get death with that 

 it comes free with every life 

 no exceptions, please

content-free

Vapid bar chit-chat 

breeds hook-ups and empty sex 

 just the flesh connects

mixed blessings

Szechuan peppercorns

spice the food but numb the tongue

take care which you bite!

pre-frontal

cold grey Southeast wind

spilling off the continent

makes lift at Drake's Bay

third thoughts

Looking pretty phat 

 now that we chose not to fly 

remorse gnaws my heart

Irony writ large

Eight disastrous years 

 in which Cheney ran amok 

strengthened Iran's hand

accidental wisdom

Rice summarizes 

 her years of serving George Bush 

"flawed intelligence"

short-sighted

not quite warm enough 

 wind would freeze any bare flesh 

 trapped in this hotspring

morning inversion

 Valleys trap cold air 

 the whole atmosphere settles 

 when the sun don't shine

solstice

 Hard on the tiller 

 the sun reverses her course 

 now she'll tack northwards 

comfortably numb

 Poached like a lobster 

 consciousness flickers and fades 

 the hot tub's too hot 

Russian logic

 Quenched in the cold bath 

 trapped in the martensite state 

 the steel is hardened

unwinding

We climb in stiffly 

 but grow supple in the tub 

 annealed like iron 

let there be a firmament

Grey sky meets grey road 

behind a grey veil of rain 

one continuum

Smoking gun

 from the Vatican 

 priests were blocked from speaking out 

 about child abuse

official lies

 Bush claims victory 

 "troops" have been pulled from Baghdad 

 now they're "advisors'"

Winter run

Denuded by shoes 

 the trail turns to mud, not grass 

 treacherous footing 

come again?

Gleaming tapeta 

 conserve scant photons at night 

 in predators' eyes

of surgeons and engineers

Eschewing numbers 

 peas walnuts lemons and fists 

 calibrate their world

the universe is full of doors

Barring the front door 

 Kurtis snores in the foyer 

 we're so well guarded

their work is never done

Vultures on the beach 

 rend what washed up in the night 

 starting their workday

endotherms

You need a furnace 

 to warm stiffs. For the living, 

 a sweater will do

I'm alarmed

Is it a siren? 

 Montgomery Street wailing 

 $#!#@!! festive bagpiper 

sentimentality, bottled

Last of the handle 

 Tanquery in a small glass 

 pink sword with onions

that'll wake one

 SF's coldest morn 

 Really need that hot shower 

 Argh! Pilot light's out!

VCs and root-crops

Nearing the solstice 

 all resources are held close 

 banking on the Spring 

pantomime

Hands sketching on air 

strangers disambiguate 

Chinese homophones 

scandalous

Mark Foley's emails 

 were visceral but mis-spelled 

 all typed with one hand

a waist is a terrible thing to mind

Chasing false metrics 

we diet and cinch girdles 

 but don't exercise

change of scene

Snow dusts Diablo 

 like an out-sized confection 

 to placate Fenris

waste not

Eat local. It's chic 

 spend less fuel to get your food 

cook your own roadkill 

accountable?

Soldiers of fortune 

 suddenly subject to law 

 Blackwater. Brownshorts

mind gets in the way

Drips, drops, and splatters 

 Jackson Pollack with coffee 

 leaky travel mug

what cost beauty?

Stiletto-heeled shoes 

 make her look tall at a cost 

 "Morton's neuroma"

better

in a kitchen knife 

only Damascus steel serves 

for the fetishist 

humility

The wise understand 

 every man is my teacher 

I can learn from him

heckuva job!

Dubya's insistence 

 on loyalty above all 

 bought incompetence

compensation

Cold grey driving rain

 replenishes aquifers 

 depletes joie-de-vivre

if we're to have a future...

 Instead of warring 

 we'll stop making enemies 

 homo pacifex

14 Dec '08

Small hail tomorrow 

 this storm really has some oomph 

 maybe tam Tuesday?

sunshower

Rain-cloud overhead 

sun low in the eastern sky 

both bathe me at once

wow, that's....interesting

Fine art in Belgium 

 transcends social conventions 

 tattooing live pigs

bleary

dimmer than the moon 

 the sun struggles through the mists 

we shiver, but hope

Chicago politics

like a lotus bloom 

 emerging from fetid mud 

Obama rises

teflon?

 Strangely unsullied 

 Obama carries no taint 

 of old chicago

it takes a village

Unsocialized boys 

 used, or acting on their own 

 terrorize the world 

all is calm...

Dark by five o'clock 

 the dead of winter grips us 

there's no convection

ends

A sky of red streaks 

 smudged like an abbatoir's floor 

 mourns for the sunset 

plutocracy

 Risking depression 

Bush let bankers run amok 

 his friends lack for naught

thems that have, get

Golden parachutes 

 cushion those who should go "splat"

 in a more just world

chicago roots

 untainted, so far 

Obama sprouts from the muck 

 like a lotus bloom

androchronology/Diary

reassembled pulp 

 wood forgets its history 

 to record my own

bleed him!

Tuesday Science Times 

 first person bits by doctors 

 so irritating.

impermanence II

The Winter wind blows 

disdainful of our egos

spindrift fills our tracks

new pharaoh

seven hungry years

almost overthrew Egypt

eight years of George Bush...

impermanence

The Winter wind blows 

 caring nothing for our feats 

 snow fills our footprints

ballast

Bucati pasta 

 thick and hollow spaghetti 

 monsterous, but good 

making it better

Eggs fried in butter 

 are much easier to flip 

 and taste better too.

succession

Teach your workers well 

 when they're fit to succeed you 

 you can move ahead

kent state

 American dreams 

 crushed by our national guard 

 dead in ohio

kibbitzers

Old men yet again 

 conspire in smoky back rooms 

send young men to die

privilege

Some rich twits enjoy 

 a privileged position 

 for being born well 

Yeah, right

David Brooks pretends 

 his is the voice of reason 

I am the walrus

news?

Dubya acknowledged 

 we're in a recession 

the kid's not too swift 

fast food

 to use surplus corn 

we developed a cuisine 

fit only for swine

disregulated

Newts with mis-placed eyes

thrive on Dubya's newest rules

for our coal mining

twisted

"Twilight"s metaphor

depicts sex as violence

love as abstinence

dirty break

Mukasey would hide

allegations of torture

 from Holder's inquest

strandbeest:

Theo Jansen's works

march along the Dutch seacoast 

powered just by wind

silent menace

Chic electric cars 

may save the world at a price 

 they kill more squirrels

invisible fist

 Banks collapse and fold 

 peasants sell their own kidneys 

 when markets go wild

perfect hosts

If i ask sweetly 

 sometimes they'll trade clean towels 

 for empty beer cans

how lame

 Dubya still lingers

 enacting petty mischief

 useless as fish-shoes

winter garden

 Leaping towards the light 

 as if they have work to do 

Favas germinate