fill-flash

Bring back some shadows 
photographing in flat light 
you've erased her nose

oxymoron

Well-done hanger steak 
 fit for neither man nor beast 
abomination 

traditional recipe

Microcrystalline 
 Carbides between martensite 
sweet steel baklava

equinox

By Rosh haShanah 
 Orion watches the news 
 thud on my curbstone

anonymity

On the internet 
no one knows that you're a dog 
trolls, we can sniff out

crafty

To corral herring 
 humpbacks and orcas weave nets 
 from strands of bubbles

hooked

Chronic injuries 
 can't stop a true devotee 
 running 'for his health' 

perfect

Defeating headlights
 As if cut from Night herself 
 Bears crossing the road

choice?

Vladomir Putin
tells his voters what to want
they point back at him

rigged

Voters in Russia
Can choose anyone they want
From Putin's menu

all things must end

Fourth came a pale horse
and who rode on it was Death
Hell followed after

no, the other one

Second-string talent
Benjamin Netanyahu
the hero's brother

faithfully executed

Under Obama
SEC prosecutions
rebound towards normal

hounded

Beyond sanity
Dismal children of the Night
Pursue Orestes

back it up

What is past is clear
laid before us in broad light
the future's unlit

leaderless

No one owns this race
Herman Cain took Florida
The field's wide open

everything becomes clear

. . . youth in Michigan
didn't know I was depressed
it seemed so normal

motives

Eris and Eros
drive Homer's epic poems
sisters, born of Night

not dead yet!

what of Laertes?
deposed from Ithaka's throne
he wasn't dead yet

l'amour est tellement simple

love should be simple
satisfy her libido
entrust her with yours

orphaned

the horse's belly
sheltered Neoptolemus
not his father's shield

loco

"loco parentis"
might describe the Berkeley Club
colloquially

creationism

folding Sikkar Point
in less than 6000 years
God is truly great!

values III

Too old? Whatever!
suddenly, I realized,
there's more than just air

values

"Conan, what is best?"
"to hear the lamentations
of those below you"

priorities II

smoking pulled pork butt
connective tissue slowly melts
but when will I sleep?

specialized

cooks in paradise
are of Gallic persuasion
in hell, they're British

perfidious

Ashfaq Kayani 
 sent uncle Sam his regards 
 through the Haqqanis 

solid man

cold-flowing alloy
 into the interstices
 nico swaged cables

doomed

Barack Obama 
 The wrong side of history 
 Vetoing statehood 

classy

No chase scene, no sex 
 Das Leben der Anderen 
 Just great cinema

multiverse

the world of waking 
 Is our common property 
 Dreamers dream alone

children

Long after we're grown 
 We carry our younger selves 
 Home for Thanksgiving

these are not the 'droids you're looking for...

Parasitic worms 
 Lull their hosts' immune systems 
 Smarter than they look!

imperial

Dick Cheney's project 
 an Executive amok 
unconstrained by Law

socialization

Internet gossip 
 Anonymous and vicious 
 No one sees the blush 

rebound

Inexorably 
 Repressive societies 
 Make us all rebels

still fighting the last war

Dread of inflation 
 Still drives German policy 
 Long after Weimar

of North and South

Tropical storm 'Lee' 
 devastated the Northeast 
 waiting for 'Sherman'

perfidy

Ashfaq Kayani 
 sent uncle Sam his regards 
 through the Haqqanis

go with it

cold-flowing alloy
 into the interstices
nico swaged cables

reform with teeth

Enact Glass/Steagel 
 Then I'll believe we're healing 
 not a day before

veiled

Thetis's wedding 
 Overshadowed by a brawl 
 Bride veiled in omens

festive

A dab of Bearnaise 
 makes  A luxurious meal 
 from a mere grilled steak

eye of the beholder

Life's a Rorschach test 
 If you're not getting enough 
 Everything is sex

tempting

Running in flip-flops 
 Invitation to fracture 
 Fifth metatarsal

rebound

inexorably
repressive societies
make us all rebels

Eris

The uninvited
wedding gift for Peleus
made no one happy

stylin'!

Charles crops his hair close
to accentuate the ears
bold architecture!

Williams' Law

big shit-eating grin
all blood-flow is diverted
to his genitals

flavorants

Real free-range chickens 
 Eating flies and worms and weeds 
 Don't taste like tofu

ardent

Sing, Muse of the wrath 
 that made Achilles burn fierce 
 for a little while

live fast, die young...

Shining Achilles 
 bore no scars from boars or men 
 his corpse was perfect

count no man happy...

Hewn down like an ox 
 Agamemnon died at home 
 Ingloriously

exemplary

Bush learned from Stalin
 it isn't who votes that counts
 it's who counts the votes

ersatz

put the carob down
 the taste of disappointment
can't make a brownie

what is not forbidden...

Sparse fossil records 
 Grant imagination space 
 To construct monsters

cuckold

Menelaos won 
 Helen's hand and Sparta's throne 
 but lost his good name

fledging

Over-protective 
 Parents produce fragile kids 
 Emotionally

manipulation

In each election 
 Cynical politicians 
 Wave the bloody shirt

court me

David Axelrod
 figures my vote's in the bag
 I'll still vote for CHANGE

empathy

 a nation widowed
 When JFK was murdered 
 We were all Jackie

charade

BofA's new plan 
 Rearranging the deckchairs 
 On the Titanic

sleep on it

One third of a life 
 Spent in bed, perchance to dream 
 Vegetative state

Depressed

Enact Glass/Steagel 
 Then I'll believe we're healing 
 not a day before

acting

on the casting couch
simulating ecstasy
tests an actor's craft

the view from beyond

Achilles, in death
 Looks back longingly at life
Wistful immortal

the complete Man

Kleos and nostos
 Odysseus achieves both
 No one else gets it

inconclusive

Petraeus' Surge
 Kicked the can down the same road
 Civil war still looms

the fog of Life

Wisdom comes easy
 If you follow all the steps
 First, you have to die. . .

time-sensitive

Accounts of his death
 'highly exagerated'
 According to Twain

illogic

''nobody goes there''
 Yogi Berra was quoted
 ''it's much too crowded''

Lincoln's ear

''Four score and seven''
 Why not ''ten squared less thirteen''?
 Subtle prosody

planer

Abstract furniture
 scattered in the Sierras
 milled by a glacier

endings

Sunrise's herald
 Orion high in the South
 announces Autumn

Noah knew

Dawn's serenity
The fwap of one raven's wings
 The rest is silence

give me strength

Distended bladder
 Struggles against beer pressure
 The restroom's nasty

special

Every kid's special
 In the Benton School district
 Restricted gene pool

haemmorhage

Burning Man traffic
 clogs the highways and hotsprings
 Right down to LA

sheepish

Suddenly brake lights
 One oncoming CHP
 panics the whole herd

up

Past the equator
 Orion looks much the same
 just more excited