Tiger Riding for Beginners

Traveling Poet Philosopher & Occasional Wiseacre

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.

overcast dawn:
 cloud edges burn... briefly,
  then cool to gray.

brisk morn dragonfly:
 too cold to move, or dead?
  unmoved by footfall.

a drunk staggers
 around the corner, and stares
  into the full moon.