wallowing

Cutting and weaving 
 SUVs mimic sports cars 
 until they capsize

words mean what I want them to mean

stumping for McCain
Palin calls for "common sense"
Satire isn't dead!  

symbiotes

Freed from parasites 
 auto-immune diseases 
 do us more damage

trade-offs II

Without parasites 
 there might be no use for males 
 clones could rule the world

categorical imperative

Emanuel Kant 
 wants all kids vaccinated 
 for the public good

trade-offs

germs and parasites 
 keep parthenogenesis 
 from displacing sex

"patriots"

Cheney and Enron 
 waged economic warfare 
 on California

crass

With such social skills 
 she should be a mortician 
 the dead won't sock her

tyrant's logic

Vladimir Putin 
vows to trample the Chechens 
 because they're Russian

Pentagon Papers

Ellsberg challenged us 
wouldn't you go to prison 
 to help end this war?

more big lies

Goebbels and Cheney 

 idolized the Common Man 

 while trampling on him

big lies

Goebbels and Cheney 
 built the cult of common Folk 
 while trampling on them

apathy

Senator Gravel 
read the Pentagon Papers 
 to an empty room

values and the lack thereof

our age's best minds
labor in obscurity
 clowns hog the limelight

big show

lustrous tom turkeys 
 ornate as Faberge eggs 
 and about as bright

a flower out of place

Creeping oxalis 
 aspires to cover the world 
 in yellow blossoms

striving

To capture in words 
 what had not been thought before 
 drives poets to drink

shallow II

Only a great fool 
 mistakes the garb for the flesh 
 nudity for sex

shallow

Repressed Puritans 
 conflate nudity with sex 
 the garb with the flesh

oppression as culture

More than the Koran 
 deep Pashtun misogyny 
 guides the taliban

scull

the moons ancient hull
without crew or sail or mast
 founders in the West

collectibles

Wives don't understand 
 the curator of mustards 
 deserves more credit

aperçu

haikus from the blue 
 apropos of god knows what 
 punctuate the day

incentive structure

Doctors in the States 
 get paid to stick in more tubes 
 not to heal the sick

tyranny of the majority

Rabban Gamaliel 
 mustered a majority 
 by excluding G-d

man bites dog

Jonah fled from God 
 sailing in vain towards Tarshish 
 but that fish caught him

frat row

Pheromones of fear 
 trigger Scott's nightmares each year 
 when it's Finals Week

of form and function

Modern glass office 
 filled the architects with pride 
 damned near broke my nose

what do ya do with an immortal?

Through the Door of Night 
 beyond the Wall of the World 
 Morgoth was cast out

beyond hand-made

Interchangeable 
 dimensions and tolerance 
 transformed industry

the price of knowledge

Enkidu the Wise 
 communed with both birds and beasts 
 ere he knew Woman

death of an Immortal

Despite treachery 
 Fingolfin honored his pledge 
 and won a good death

craft

Good fiction writers 
 reveal Truth by spinning lies
 readers must keep track

bad lawyer

To Joe Lieberman 
 inalienable rights 
 are just for his friends

mighty Wyoming

The Great Compromise 
 empowered the smallest states 
 to block real reform

seven lean years

In the Roche boardroom 
 arose a generation 
 who knew not Syntex

man bites dog

Jonah fled from God 
 sailing in vain towards Tarshish 
 but that fish caught him

irreconcilable differences

The Texas School Board 
 opposes modernity 
just let them secede

tyranny of the majority

Rabban Gamaliel 
 mustered a majority 
 by excluding G-d

it's not who votes that counts, but who counts the votes

Iyad Alawi 
 out-polled the Kurds on their turf 
if you trust his count

incentive structure

Doctors in the States 
 get paid to stick in more tubes 
 not to heal the sick

disuse leads to atrophy

fatty deposits
 fill in where there's no muscle
 between Dubya's ears

American healthcare "system"

remuneration
drives doctors to run more tests
not to keep us well

progress?

Now that we have film 
we can document the end 
of life here on earth

Heart of a banker

board up their houses 
 throw their kids out on the streets 
 foreclose on their dreams

while standing on one foot

What's hateful to you 
do not do to another 
 now go and study

no prospect of an end

Henrietta Lax 
 lives on in a Petri dish
 way beyond Death's grasp

categorical imperative

Kant proscribed actions 
 that would wreck society 
 if we all did them

British understatement

 forty-two million
 seems quite a lot of condoms
for one soccer team

toned

Metrical constraints
 keep the poet in focus 
 there's no room for flab

delegate!

Clinton felt your pain 
 but Obama keeps his cool 
 Rahm rages for him

wired weird

Unlike the vagus 
 nine of ten cranial nerves 
never leave the head

alien culture

Friday night bar fights 
 are a week's entertainment 
 in much of Texas

pander

Ben Netanyahu 
acts like time is on his side 
 how dumb can he be?

hearts soar

Talon to talon 
sparring shades into romance 
 redtail hawks' courtship

sheep get fleeced

Marketers' mandate:
 teach the people what to want 
 then charge them for it

censorious

Corrupting the youth 
 got Socrates in trouble 
 with politicians

smoke and mirrors II

David Brooks dares us 
 to catch him telling a lie 
 column by column

thermals bounce

Near an inversion 
 if you fly into tight sink 
 search upwind for lift

mediterranean diet

 stick to the legumes
 unnatural lust for beef
 killed Pasiphaë

affinity maturation:

With each new challenge 
 cytidine deaminase 
 refines the binding

irrelevant

Answers are worthless 
until they've found the questions 
 students can't hear you

three cups of tea

Mortenson sahib 
 stumbled on his life's calling 
 at death's very door

local order

under crumbling logs
glistening salamanders
organize chaos

dare

live like you're dying
dance like there's no one watching
someday, you'll be right

Scott had some long flights

on a full-race Magic-4

back when he was young

least motion

turns just slow you down

point down the gravity well

Newton beckons you

progress?

groovy double panes
don't make ski goggles better
when snow gets inside

palm beach

grim necropolis
geriatric bridge players
just waiting to die

palpable

dawn's tranquility
given substance by contrast
one peacock, shrieking

bougainvilla

such a rare blossom
means nothing out of context
this one has sharp thorns

la balena

when Jaime found me
he gave me the only beer
although it was Scott's

brilliance trumps schooling

as patient as Lee
and as ballsy as Hanlon
still won't beat Whitehill

nine parts of desire
Allah bestowed on women
but one's quite enough

uplifting

El Refugio
calls to me and picks me up
when I'm feeling low

Scott had some long flights

on a full-race Magic-4

back when he was young

everything is relative

Kurtis says he's near
but that's not what those words mean
in standard English

stodgy

last day in Valle
I gave the Pumpkin to Scott
but he's way too old

free flow

come to Mexico!
it will drain your sinuses
and your GI-tract

omens

all has been revealed
written in white ink on white
now, just learn to read

unconscionable

pandering to fear
senator Joe Lieberman
discards basic rights

smoke and mirrors

credit default swaps
created a show of wealth
devoid of assets

like the grass that withereth

washing the body
we remember youth and health
Babe, I knew you when!

the ties that bind

Henry's second wife
was, after they tied the knot
Lady Anne Bowline

special

dreams of white horses
lend magic to some folks' nights
I get piebald moose

multitasking

you're a good partner
but you're an even better
snowball target...cool!

taunted

text reports of snow
received during the workday
inspire longing

forces of darkness

Vaccines' opponents 
 spreading ignorance and fear 
 go on killing kids

where did that come from?

Petulant Haiku 
clamor for my attention 
 as I drift towards sleep

sisters, rivals

Sweet Ariadne 
 saved Theseus from the maze 
he married Phaedra

purity

The Amish appear 
 to practice a purer love 
 than the gospels teach

low-altitude marker

Slightly right of launch 
 a dark adit gapes at me 
 like the maw of hell

el mercado

Some of the baggage 
 clucks and squawks like live poultry 
 this isn't Kansas

of books, and their covers

Map lift carefully! 
 some days the strongest thermals 
 come dressed up in sink

heavenwards

Soaring to cloud-base 
 I can visit, but can't dwell 
 in this realm of gods

inexorable

Morning in Valle 
 one less clean shirt on the stack 
 one less day to soar

tough days

Scratching in rat farts 
 Justine showed us which way's up 
 while I flailed and sank

Captains Courageous

Homage to Melville 
 Kipling's American phase 
"Captains Courageous"

art II

Does it make you feel? 
 ornamental fripperies 
 can't make bad art good

art

Welcome catharthis 
 all life's losses and traumas 
 distilled into verse

Laughter of children 
rolls in endless, timeless waves 
 salving the dying

dated

Mexican fashion 
 dictates that men's hair sweep up 
 I feel so stodgy

airport, immigrations

Delayed and hindered 
 do I have to stand for this? 
 my passport's not clear