footprints

Red meat or tofu 
 even food can't be just food 
 it's political

unbowed

Defying congress 
 and his corporate sponsors 
 still, Pete Seeger sang

women's work

  

Heroic Yael 
ended Sisera's rampage 
 without leaving home

hard science

Chemist have it good
 unlike the astronomers
 we can run controls

ambition

Asking too little 
conceding prematurely 
 Obama aims low

ominous

Full-dress uniforms 
 appearing on one's doorstep 
 portend nothing good

2000

In Bush versus Gore 
 state by state, nothing was new 
 slave states know their own

Mid-East peace talks

  

Refusing to talk 
 until the game's been ceded 
 petulant children

half measures II

Hope can't be enough 
 'Til he shows Audacity 
 Obama will fail

half measures

Hope can't be enough 
 'Til there's Audacity too 
 Obama will fail

Phaedra

  

Theseus's son 
 had no time to chase the girls 
 it irked his step-mom

tuning

  

Haiku mean nothing 
 until they find resonance 
 in a reader's soul

inscrutable

rainstorms in Mecca
 test the resolve of pilgrims
 camping in the mud

evitable

  

From our hour of birth 
 death is graven in each face 
 the life, we must write

judgement pending

  

Hope's a precious thing 
 but where's the Audacity? 
still we wait for Change

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