DAILY PHOTO: Big-Eared Baby Baboon

Taken at Amboseli National Park, Kenya in June of 2017

Hawk Fight [Haiku]

hawk dogfight -
the chased twists in midair,
going talons up

Condor [Haiku]

the condor soars
above the canyon rim;
its back glows gold

DAILY PHOTO: Sloth Bear

Taken in September near Chitradurga

What’s in a Name? [Kyōka]

Pantropical Jumping Spider
i was brave
when facing this spider,
until I learned
that within its name
was the word, "Jumping"

Swallowtail [Kyōka]

a swallowtail lands;
crashed into by another,
it doesn't flinch;
ten feet away, I lean in
and it flutters away

Bucktoothed Monkey Mastermind [Common Meter]

I saw a bucktoothed monkey sit
on the ground all alone.
It looked the doofus - its dental-
mental shortfall shone,
but is the size of incisors
a measure of one's smarts?
Has anyone done the study,
gathered data, made the charts?

What if that dentally-outsized
primate is a dreamer-
a mastermind, a supervillain,
or just a first-rate schemer?
What if it just wants us to think
that it's a huge dimwit?
So, it doesn't show its erudition,
or its razor-keen wit.

Instead, it waits for us to be
lulled to a false repose,
so that it can show us we're all
a bunch of biased schmoes.

Golden Silk Spider [Haiku]

the spider’s mind
is one with the silken web,
tripped by vibration