Tiger Riding for Beginners

Traveling Poet Philosopher & Occasional Wiseacre

three lil kittens
 rotate through one-on-one 
  combat — tag-team style.

in the temple yard,
 a bell clangs three times, and
  vibrates beyond silence.

in an open field,
 one sunflower towers,
  its head drooping.

lazy kayakers
 drift downstream as long-tailed
  boats chug upstream.

Autumn morn sunlight
 brightens the grassy bank,
  & throws long shadows.

at day's end,
 the sun dips behind a tree,
  but fails to hide.

walking in rice stalk,
 grasshoppers ping forward, 
  plink - plink - CRUNCH - plink...

funnel-web spider
 sprints out -- tremor-triggered --
  miffed to see hiker.

chugging upriver,
 past karst spires, the boaters’
  time seems to slow.

a water lily
 opens in the morning sun:
  reciprocal glow.