donk

thudding on the glass

butterflies test my windows

then flutter away

the name, and the thing

"Department of State"

is it an oxymoron?

sounds un-federal

bitter jest

Teddy-bear cholla 

 beckons fools with out-stretched arms 

 to embrace their pain

tortured logic

To placate the Right 

 Obama obstructs justice 

 pray for our country

FSM

bathed in the red sauce 

 from His noodley appendage 

 first humans drew breath

for signs and for seasons

Fragrant muscat grapes 

 remind us of the earth's tilt 

 somewhere, it's Autumn

cult of novelty

My poor tongue recoils 

 from this latest fusion fad 

 like a salted slug

eternal hope

Flags fly at half mast 

 a ray of hope lights my heart 

 maybe it's Cheney

political logic

Ottawa announced 

 we've got to club more seal pups 

 it's for their own good

goosebumps

March wedding outdoors

first flowers vie with last frost

guests dress in layers

March '09

rain squalls lash the hills

springs erupt from grassy slopes

funny sort of drought!

green

Sun shines through new leaves 

 stripped of all photons save green 

 the rest can be used

tough choices

If I've got to die 

 let it be death by chocolate 

 self-administered

class warfare II

Dubya and Cheney 

waged eight years of class warfare 

 now they fear lynching

class warfare

Eight years of pillage 

 led to this angry moment 

 bankers fear lynching

accountability II

Torturers walk free 

 must we riot in the streets 

 to see justice done?

Pakistani precedent

Chaudhry is restored 

 maybe someday here as well 

 we'll have rule of law

lekking II

Three big tom turkeys

compete for the hen's favors

she looks unimpressed

lekking

Strutting in the shade 

 toms make a dim spectacle 

 no one said they're bright

be here now

Crowding 'round the screen 

 they consult the satellite 

 while they're swathed in cloud

see no evil

Dubya's strategy 

 quash SEC enforcement 

 all gains are short-term

ground-state

The solar pump rests 

cold air settles on the ground 

 nothing soars at night

unresolved

After a long drive 

 muscular dystonia 

 sabotages rest

heartwarming

March wedding outdoors 

 first flowers vie with last frost 

 guests in layers

S/N II

Roosters crow at dawn 

 and at cars and dogs and ghosts 

 less signal than noise

small beer

Given the choices 

 nicotine and ethanol 

 seen pretty timid

round two

smashing the white cake

into her new husband's face

she ends the courtship

context

From enough distance 

anything can be funny 

 if not quite tasteful

and, in the end...

A ravening beast 

 devouring us by increments 

 Time never relents

ex nihilo

Credit default swaps 

 conjured sixty-two trillion 

 out of wanton greed

disfunctional

after a long drive

muscular dystonia

precludes restful sleep

a world bleached of magic

the elves are all gone

with his burning-glass and pen

 sir Isaac slew them

smug

Rabbit's silhouette 

 against the moon's silver disk 

ignores Orion

heroic measures

Propping up zombies 

 government can pump in cash 

 but can't infuse life

added in proof

Bright ambient light

bleaching out my cell phone's screen

precludes proof-reading

Watchmen II

Rorschach taunts the cons

 "I'm not stuck in here with you

 you're trapped here with me!"

accountability

Obama's flim-flam 

 looking forward and not back 

you can't enforce law

Watchmen

Knowing the future 

 doc manhattan came detached 

 from the human plane

Newtonian revolution

the elves are all gone

 with his burning-glass and pen

 sir Isaac slew them

march surprise

Sudden springs erupt 

 gushing from the grassy slope 

 and as quickly cease

freestyle archery

Arming insurgents

under cover of the surge

we revised our goals

one law for the homeborn and for the stranger

A nation of laws 

 leaves no room to wink at crimes 

 prosecute Cheney

serenity

A traverse run out 

 on the sharp end of a rope 

 tests nerves more than brawn

audiences

More than good acting 

 dogs, monkeys and small children 

 keep the crowd enthralled

chag sameach

Displayed in Berkeley 

 the Baal Shem Tov's own grogger 

 announces Purim

bitter blast

hey, I know that voice! 

 Rorschach's cynical tirades 

 sound like Gregory

Watchmen

Alan Moore's insane 

the watchmen movie triumphs 

without the black ship

faith

doubting his daughters
Lear demanded proof of love
and spurned happiness

selfish

One over-sized bag 

 should have been checked at the gate 

 now my flight's delayed

combatants?

if it's really war 

Afghans can be held uncharged 

 for the duration

a longer obit

Edward Kennedy 

 walked out on the senate floor 

 says he's not dead yet

predisposed to believe

Discerning patterns 

 where only the noise is real 

 we invent demons

tropopause

At 35k 

our plane cruises peacefully 

 above the weather

local color

Driving up to launch 

 foot-long drooping bracts of pink 

 bromeliads in bloom

marked man

Having killed his boar 

 Odysseus bore the scars 

back to Ithaca

subtle

sly Odysseus 

concealed the wooden horse ploy

 even from Homer

over the hill

Up over the back 

drifting more than i'm climbing 

 XC committed

the early bird

They know the earth's round 

 therefore it's morning somewhere 

 cocks crow in the dark

S/N

Cocks crow at the dawn 

and at passing cars, and dogs 

 more noise than signal

on the road

Still with head-lights on 

cars betray those who set out 

 before the first light

should I take offense

Launching my glider 

 someone hollers out 'aguas' 

I'm no chamber-pot!

languor

Lounging by the lake

too early to go to launch

critiquing the fruit

proportionate force

In the czar's palace 

 each door has a different key 

 one ax opens all

index issues

In the first locus 

I store my mother language 

 others fight for space

impermissible

Were a man to speak

out of earshot of his wife

would he still be wrong?

don't look down

Marking my turn-point 

 the mine adit gapes below 

 like the maw of hell

Prosecute!

 our state's character 

 must be that of her set laws 

 not that of her men

insensitive

On Turkish beaches 

 scantily-clad infidels 

 provoke some to scold

cruise control

On a Laminar 

 the center of lift moves aft 

 as you pull VG

humility

When we cannot know 

 to know that we do not know 

 saves us from hubris

focus

Almost noiselessly 

 deer browse at the forest's edge 

 rarely looking up

compulsive

Tool-using primates 

 alter their environment 

 mostly for the worse

compulsive

Tool-using primates 

 alter their environment 

 mostly for the worse

check it out

Revealed in haiku 

 glittering fragments of life 

 glimpses of a soul

24 February 2009

The moon's first crescent 

 almost eclipses venus 

 sinking in the west

certainty II

Secure in his faith 

 he won't trade his theories 

for experience

strong motivation

Prince Siddharta saw 

disease, suffering and death 

 and sought a way out

certainty

Don't trust him too fast 

 sometimes right, but always sure 

 he's an engineer

corn saves II

Neither faith nor deeds

 have the salvific power 

 of a field of corn

corn saves

Neither faith nor works

 has the potency to save

of a field of corn

reciprocity

To their conquerors 

 a token of their esteem 

 intestinal worms

PTT issues

Fucking radio 

 keeps squawking "do you copy?" 

how does one say "No"?

flies like Kevin

From eight thousand six 

 he ran straight for el Penon 

 sinking all the way

behind the ridge

Feeling kind of low 

 to be drifting so far back 

I restart the the search

behind the ridge

Feeling kind of low 

 to be drifting so far back 

I restart the the search

rocked

Thermals like phonepoles 

 tall, strong and far too skinny 

punctuate the sky