tending the flock

A river of ducks 
strips the paddies bare of bugs 
 waddling toward Saigon

hard to get

Hold your ballot close 
 if you tip your hand too soon 
 no one will court you

moonlighting

Pakistan's soldiers 
 moonlighting as terrorists 
squeal when we strike back

advantage of the high ground

Sun warms the hill-tops 
gloom enshrouds the valley-folk 
 islands in the fog

pug ugly

What's wrong with that dog?! 
 like he's been chasing parked cars 
 brachycephalic

shadow of the past

Talk of her partner 
 carefully in the past tense 
 chills conversation

polygamy

In war's aftermath 
 a surfeit of young women 
 dance with too few men

blah, blah, blah

Gingrich on the stump 
 anxious to show that he's smart 
comes across as glib

I'm not here

Fredrick Law Olmstead's 
 artfully wrought wild spaces 
concealed his own craft

lobbyist

Gingrich took millions 
 the best-paid historian 
 since Herodotus 

not just hype

Scurrilous attacks 
 on Herman Cain's character 
 stand close inspection

can't just observe

Ratings Agencies 
 self-fulfilling prophecies 
 quantum influence 

state terror

Teheran's police 
 guard the British embassy 
 when it's convenient

theater

Viggo Mortenson
playing a Viennese Jew
strains the actors' craft

timeless

as birthdays roll by
not everybody grows up
some kids just grow gray

contrast

disorienting
debating Rick Santorum
makes ron Paul look sage

dungeon?

Michelle Bachman thinks
Guantanamo is "perfect"
it's not clear for what

beyond belief

she's incredible
I mean that literally
candidate Bachman

picky

the strong silent type
disappointed her as well
had nothing to say

hand-off

waning crescent moon
heralds the approaching dawn
soon, they do-si-do

frontman

James has stepped aside
the Murdochs' empire of crime
speaks through a new mask

money talks

energy- and arms-
lobbyists make themselves heard
citizens get fucked

new broom

cleaning Egypt's house
starts with tossing what's gone bad
Tantawi must go

nomad

a river of ducks
strips the paddies bare of bugs
waddling towards Saigon

brothers in arms

As tyrant topple 
 United oppositions 
 fall to bickering

Do you feel lucky?

Poker is child's play 
 mother-in-law lottery 
real sport for real men

civility

Gradual progress 
 headbutting a cat to death 
 used to be pub-sport

wallhits not

Tightly curved off-ramp 

subsumes its own warning sign 

 tread-prints on the wall

wall-hits not

Tightly curved off-ramp 
carries its own warning sign 
 tread-prints on the wall

start small

What can so few do? 
 Jesus' fishing buddies 
 transformed an empire

incentive structure

Creating real wealth 
 or playing the casino 
 taxes shape the game 

seriously

Credibility 
 ratifying Kyoto 
 would be a good start

watchdog II

Egyptian police 

 enforced Mubarak's terror 

now come the lynchings

watchdog

Egyptian police 
 enforced Mubarak's terror 
 resentment festers

monosyllabic

Frugal teenagers 
Spend no words on their parents 
 courtship consumes them

run!

Downgrading Belgium 
 bankers show no confidence 
 the Euro could break

goy kadosh

Yitzhak screwed it up 
 fathers should bless all their sons 
 not just the first-born

upswept

Mitt Romney's hair-do 
 radiates sobriety 
 tall, but not flashy

Love's labor lost

Still, each hesitates 
waiting for the first phonecall 
 praying love rings twice

make no mistake II

Assaulting students
 Pepper spray at point-blank range
brutal nonchalance

make no mistake

Against protestors 
 routinized brutality 
 spits on basic rights 

Young Werther

The woman he loved 
 got Goethe's first book published 
for her, he's still young

Mr. one-percent

Kayani's lap-dog 
 needs his permission to sneeze 
 barely worth bribing

now you see the violence inherent in the system

U.C. Campus cops 
 little men with big weapons 
 assaulting our kids

patient as a spider

Ashfaq Kayani 
waits for the Yanks to go home 
 playing the Great Game

govt from the Bottom

Mubarak's poodle 
plays the lion in his dreams 
 awake, he's an ass 

outlandish

By the euphrates 

 we mourned for Jerusalem 

 rubes in Babylon

critical

Monochromatc
Rothko melodramatic?
color me "Surprised"

structural magic
in Architecture we trust
belief holds them up

derivative

I saw this before?
The Saudi opera house
Sydney in the sand

evocative

arching stepped concrete
sloped for the optimal view
new Kaabah-sium

glitz

Bush-era Mecca
lacks a certain dignity
Vegas of the East

new-age

passive-solar homes
scream for new architecture
the market is deaf

they're not making any more!

prime south-facing cave
lion-inaccessible
built for the ages

dense

what's the R-value
of a dozen feet of stone?
caves save on heating

bonkers

John Allegro's peers
cut the man a mile of slack
lunatics are fun!

global

the debts of the West
float on bonds sold in Beijing
hope they keep buying!

huh?

progressive deafness
 heavy metal poisoning
 bane of teen drummers

vapid

As a scientist 
 ''very skilled at PowerPoint'' 
 damning with faint praise

homey

Statues by the pool 
evoke life under the Shah 
 Teherangeles

ominous

Taunting the ground-bound 
ravens herald the new storm 
Soaring the gust-front

backwater

The world's gold-standard 
 Freedom of Information 
 Mexico's law code

stately

Egypt craves freedom 
every century or two 
a new dynasty 

nothing to run on

Gingrich's record : 
 Divorce, gridlock, dysfunction 
scant bona fides

in your face

Ironic venue 
Rick Santorum's campaign stop 
Godfather's Pizza

welcome to the future

Warhol's prophecy 
 everybody gets famous 
for fifteen minutes 

definitions II

The labs run on mice 

senator  Helms assures us

 they're not animals

definitions

The labs run on mice 
 According to Jesse Helms 
 they're not animals

outstretched fist

Egypt's generals 
 entrenching their influence 
 lose cred on the Street

Ossian

jealous of Homer
MacPherson's ersatz epic
stoked British egos

s/n

total immersion
in a big Rothko canvas
is this thing turned on?

flash

Jeremy Rifkin
professional fear-monger
entrances the press

grillage

Chicago's towers
floating in a sea of mud
less sound than weebles

classy

By royal decree 
 Mecca's new architecture 
 looks less like Vegas

bludgeon

Dopey film-goers 
 need to be told when to gasp 
 cue the Carmina!

kill him!

Kill al-Awlaki? 
 Or remand him to the courts?
 What would Jesus do?

leading from behind

Across the Mid-East 
 Iran's been left in the dust 
 by revolutions

suit

As a scientist 
 ''very skilled at PowerPoint'' 
 damning with faint praise

rent-a-cop

policemen should ask
whom do they protect  and serve?
when they're beating kids

robber baron

California's ill 

on the body politic 

 Rich Blum's a cancer 

seer

George Kennan's long view 
 Encompassed Perestroika 
 Gorbachev took note

blatant

Low-bred film-goers 

need to be told when to gasp 

cue the Carmina

Occupy Berkeley

Secretary Reich 

 stands for Civil Liberties 

against plutocrats 

amuse bouche

Conceptual art 
 from El Bulli's test-kitchen 
 all is transience

cyst

Fashionable risk 
 anaerobic pathogens 
 multiply sous vide

Fashionable risk 
 anaerobic pathogens 
 multiply sous vide

thug

Douglas MacArthur 
Crossed his Rubicon with troops 
To rout our own vets

dreadful

For devastation 
 epidemics make H-bombs 
 seem like useless toys

pachinko

Luminarias 
 scintillating in the dark 
 carom off the stars

that others may simply live

laundry hung to dry
slows atmospheric warming
fluttering prayer-flags

erinyes II

grim daughters of Night
superluminary hags
blight Orestes' dreams

erinyes

hags from outside time
hound Orestes in exile
grim daughters of Night

profundo

liver-shaking bass
dominates the melody
Primus rocks the Greek

multi-media

high-value moonset
consoled us through the first set
waiting for Primus

sous-vide

poaching in Scott's tub
sealed airless in my own skin
just how hot is "rare"?

tainted

harassment charges
cling all over Herman Cain
like unwelcome hands

tide's running

cold wind from the North
Syria's opposition
regroups in Turkey

succulence

slowly braised sous-vide
small hydrophilic proteins
lend lamb shanks mouth-feel

circle the wagons

mayor Quan worries
for Oakland's reputation
I fear she's insane

inertia

Come back tomorrow!
nobody sees the wizard!
same old run-around

swell

Ashfaq Kayani
 "impossibly arrogant!"
Chris Hitchens should know

doomed

President Hoover 
 tried balancing the budget 
he didn't trust Keynes

above the law IV

The CIA's lies 
 enjoyed Ed Meese's blessing 
 freedom from the truth

above the law III

Meese condoned the lies 
 the CIA tells congress 
 cynical charade

lawless II

The moral high ground 
Surrendered preemptively 
'walk on the dark side'

above the law

Reagan's DoJ 
 condoned the CIA's lies 
 unaccountable

duly constituted

Special tribunals 
 have no place in Due Process 
 Hamdan v. Rumsfeld

deafening

No time to listen 
 Narcissistic salesman-type 
Just can't stop talking

finger in the dike II

Petraus' surge 
 Deferred Iraq's civil war 
 'til the Yanks go home 

finger in the dike

Arming militias 
Petraus tamped down a war 
 'til the Yanks go home

dig it

Yappy Wiener-dogs 
 not allowed to hunt badgers 
excavate sofas

expiration date

Hanging on too long 
 Berlusconi's legacy 
 rotted on the vine 

prolonged

Berlusconi says 
he'll leave. . .but he won't say when 
 wake me when he's gone

companions

For termites and cows 
comensals' cellulases 
share the rough banquet

cosmic

Clipped off at the walls 
 fragments of infinity 
 tile the Masjid's floor

offensive

Paterno's offense 
 dominates the evening news 
 it's about the team

undiplomatic

Surprising candor 
 from the president of France 
 speaks ill of Bibi 

collective

Ohio's voters 
 quashed Kasich's union-busting 
 Together, we're strong! 

perverse effects

Prohibiting booze 
 just drove profits underground 
 better to tax sin 

circus

'Occupy Berkeley' 
 draws the Press like carrion 
 would attract maggots

to a tee

Rupert Murdoch's spies 
 make more news than they report 
 this scandal's bespoke

dark days

Drought in Uganda 
 driving coffee prices up 
 Seattle's crashing 

bandwidth

The media love 
 glib narcissitic salesmen 
 crowding out savants

wise ass

Professor Gingrich 
keeps braying how smart he is 
 he'll gee but won't haw

devastating

GOP debates
a circular firing squad
leaves no one standing

quasi

'Full faith and credit' 
 of the U.S. Government 
 the Fed's built on lies

demi-glace

Cartoonishly rich 
 stock you could stand a fork in 
 distillate of duck

new Pharaoh, who remembered not Joseph

In the fat years, Keynes 
 expects we'd pay down the debt 
 racked up in famine

cursorial? sartorial?

Digitigrade dames 
 teetering on stillettos 
 deny they're primates 

qualified leader

Modest agenda: 
1-stabilize the Eurozone 
 2-bring the Messiah 

externalities

Trade can't be divorced 
from Labor Law policy 
"race to the bottom"

it's person-al

Who serves the People? 
 the corporate media 
 serve corporations

autoimmune

Intimate traitors 

the unkindest cut of all

 feral leukocytes

unkindest cut

Intimate traitors 
autoimmune diseases 
 feral leukocytes

Scott Olsen IV

Oakland's police force 
 terrorizes the city 
 starched blue gang colors

control

pig-headed student
hell-bent on wresting control
 of his own lesson

summary execution

Cheney's agenda 
 carried out by Obama 
 naked power-grab

of catching, and catching

Vacation's over 
 catch one bat while fly fishing 
 get three rabies shots

jackal

Skulking Aigisthos 
 mauled Agamemnon's mattress 
 while the Greeks mauled Troy

uneasy lies the head

Guilt-wracked Orestes 
 dared not sit on his own throne 
 hero in exile

thugs

America's shame 
 School for the Americas 
 State sponsored terror

faith

Not the government 
 surely not the media 
 I trust Paul Krugman

thrill

Sharing the passion 
 body-surfing with orcas 
 sets the heart racing

empty form

Expressed as haiku 
 banal thoughts are just banal 
 expressed as haiku

forever

Bisphonate drugs 
safety tests take a lifetime 
 never excreted