Sacred Ganga,
Welcome to our city.
What gifts you’ll take.
Narrow warren,
lanes lined with bright-hued goods,
bangle blind and lost.
Cattle herd
roams the parched mudflat,
kicking up dust.
A golden bridge
visits each morning, and
exits silently.
Wood stackers
endlessly working
the burning ghats.
crowded skies,
circling raptors weave
invisible baskets.
little chipmunk,
screeching relentlessly,
stop! all are warned.
rat slinks away
as cat creeps near,
despite edge in size.
popsicle monkey,
crowd coos, “Cute copy-cat,”
idly stuffing faces.
Mumbai leopards?
Hollywood mountain lions?
cats seeking parts?
alpine lake,
depth a guarded secret,
mirroring mountain
ships sit
on your sandy bottom,
yet, you’re called “lake”
in sunlight
your glistening canvas,
a bowl of diamonds
winter ice cracks
with steel cable song,
sending shudders
barren pine
beside mud-rimmed lake,
heeding drought
outside? muggy;
from inside: gray skies look
like Viennese winter
cool mornings,
after a rainy night,
soothe the spirit
the guard shack,
topped by a wading pool
only I can see
rain song
absorbs harsh sounds,
hushing the city
trust old people
with umbrellas more than
the blue in the sky
scorpion corpse
sitting atop a wall
why die there?
vultures circle
i give them wide berth
they’ve yet to choose
ant-swarmed mantis
i thought you a leaf
do the ants know?
fresh flowers
mossy flush-set headstone
unseen, not lost
the potter’s field
out near the back fence
closer to the world
day moon
subdued but looming
soon gone
sliver moon
crescent vanishing
hanging lure
mountain moon
lighting valleys
show my trail
shadowless
til milky moonlight
spills the clouds
nitid moon
you must’ve been resplendent
but I slept
moonlight
so bright silence
can’t be heard
azure sky
one puffy cloud
dances through
Andean night
the pinpoints I knew
a smear of color
Himalaya
so close that heaven
reveals its color
low gray clouds
leaf chaos unleashed
smell of rain
glow ripples
breakers by moonlight
time misbehaves
frog croaks
not a glistening back
fixing location
darkness falls
a bat diaspora
to dinner buzz
early dark fall
paired with a drizzle
a sad walk home
a tree twists
or so it seemed by night
breeze and shadow?
pounding drums
echo down the valley
birds calm
deep breath
fog dissipates
common peril
fog follows
will it catch us
before the pass
cow grazes
on the high trail
dispiriting
glaciers glow
in sunrise orange
forge iron, not
on the ridge
falls can be lethal
worth it
barren branches
rake the sky above
tines chaotic
crow turns head
aiming its lustrous eye
pausing mid-meal
snowy silence
ends in flapping wings
then returns
cornstalk stubble
dusted in dry snow
desiccated
breath tendrils
roil into limbo
forgotten
