POEM: Sun Slave [PoMo Day 25 – Aubade]

Warm light filters through the window,
killing the perfect night.
The gravity of bed still holds -
as eyelids deny sight.

And life's order would wrench me out
from under the cover,
but for the allure and the bliss
of my love, and lover.

Why must the sun be on the march?
Why must we heed its place,
and surrender that entwinement -
chest pillow against face?

DAILY PHOTO: Victoria Monument, Kolkata

Taken in Kolkata in July of 2016.

POEM: The Remote Viewer, Or: Dark Cell [PoMo Day 24 – Rhyme Royal]

She was a remote viewer, so they said.
They hoped she'd see beyond the bunker wall,
but she'd only see where eyes were live, not dead.
She saw conversing spies out in the hall.
She heard whispered words on the monster's ball.
But she could never see inside a crypt -
'less breached by drifter or derelict.

You see, she borrowed eyes as well as ears.
Somehow she drilled her way into strange minds.
She knew their secrets, but also their fears.
And if one thing could make a mind unwind,
it's taking all one's fears to be confined
within a shell loaded with its own dread,
walking one's demons where angels fear to tread.

They sought the perfect spy, but got madness.
Who knew she'd look home to see a dark cell.
They'd tried to shrink noise, but broke the badness.
She'd take trips to their minds and bring her Hell.
She'd never try to kill- just let brains swell,
to waterlog with horrors and demons,
'til they committed killings and treason.

And so she found freedom, but not saneness.

POEM: Cyborg

it's the bits of machinery
that play out the chicanery
the cogs that grind against the gears
are devils without whims or fears
only sins writ in corrupt code

traced out by the edges and nodes
systems of systems are networked
to play the game, then go berserk

and I'm a ghost in that bad code

DAILY PHOTO: Kashmiri Creek Bed

Taken on the Naranag-Sonamarg Trek in August of 2016

POEM: The Shepherd Dream [PoMo Day 23 – Eclogue]

I lie on the sloping hillside;
damp grass tickles my neck.
I hear the bleating beasts kibitz
as dogs keep them in check.

My eyes closed to the azure dome,
until eyelids grow dim.
I open wide to see the sky,
and note that it grows grim.


It's time to consult my sheepdog,
"Should we beat it, or stay?"

He barks to me, "Now can't you see,
the clouds 're dirty wool gray?"

"I see it clearly as my hand,
but what does that shade mean?"

"It means you're not a shepherd, and
you may need the latrine."

POEM: Infinite City

In my dream, the city stretched out
beyond what I could see.
Colorful concrete pillbox roofs
spread to infinity.

Oh, such an infinite city
must have some great allure.
Miracles, mysteries, mayhem,
and madness - that's for sure.

What secrets reside behind those
thick and dampening slabs?
What unknown fortunes have been lost,
that now are up for grabs?

How many souls are lost right now?
Panic starting to rise.
How many will be found in time
due to those spying eyes? 

There's some magic in this city,
I'm sure that there must be.
For everything can happen when
you stretch to infinity.

DAILY PHOTO: Vajdahunyad Castle from the City Park Lake Side

Taken in the summer of 2011 in Budapest

POEM: Leaky Roof [PoMo Day 22 – Senryū]

a leaky roof:
a man weighs patching it
against worrying

POEM: Into the Unknown

There's a block of gloomy darkness
beyond the gray yonder.
Since I can't see what's sitting there,
I can't help but ponder
whether there's solid ground upon
which a guy could wander.
Or would one fall into a void -
a life forthwith squandered.

Who can know if they don't ever go,
but leave it to the guessing?
No staked claims or stated aims, I find
the mystery distressing.
I listen to the stories, but
can't sup what they're expressing,
I know they've never been there either,
and it's creed they're professing.

So I'll start in that direction,
moving slowly as I go,
and if I should fall before the wall,
I'll bear that I can't know.