Grave Reviews [Free Verse]

I click on Google Maps;
 a pin highlights for a cemetery,
  and, here, I stumble upon 
   graveyard reviews.

These reviews intrigue me because
 it seems to me that if one is capable 
  of writing a cemetery review,
    then one is unqualified.

And, if one is qualified to comment
 on the caliber of an eternal resting place,
  then one is unlikely to be capable of 
   posting a review.

I read one of the one-star reviews
 and see that the reviewer's principal complaint
 is an overabundance of "pocong."

"What is a 'Pocong?'" you may ask.
 It is a Javanese ghost that takes up
  occupancy in death shrouds.

Why is there a Javanese ghost
 infestation in a cemetery 4000 kilometers
  from Java, and -- as near as I can tell --
   with zero Javanese occupants?

The review does not say,
 but I love that someone panned 
  a cemetery based on the presence 
   of foreign ghosts

[and not because it is simultaneously
 phasmophobic and xenophobic.]

But because it shows an unbridled commitment 
 to one's imagination that is usually 
  only seen among children. 

DAILY PHOTO: Scenes from Chicago

Cemetery Math [Free Verse]

i walk through the graveyard,
subtracting birth from death dates
to determine age at death.

there’s a correlation between
speed of calculation &
the degree of tragedy.

the faster i can determine an age,
the more disconcerting the death:
like the girl — 1990 to 2008.

the 89 year old man who survived WWII
service in the Burmese jungle
doesn’t raise as many questions.

Lake Waves [Haiku]

lake waves break ashore
 unpredictably, catching
  hapless strollers. 

DAILY PHOTO: Chicago by Night

Ripples [Haiku]

ripples on a pond:
the day seems still & windless,
but, somewhere, air moves.

Deceptive Dragonfly [Haiku]

a still dragonfly 
looks perched & ready,
but then falls dead.

DAILY PHOTO: Marina City [Corn Cob Buildings]

DAILY PHOTO: Vista Tower [The St. Regis]

Not Waving; Not Drowning [Haiku]

among detritus,
an arm breaches the surface:
not waving / not drowning.