The Thoreau Life [Common Meter]

What a way to live one's life, in
a cabin made of wood;
never to be governed by: "I
have to! I must! I should!"

To set one's sights on the day's needs
as one's only master,
and not be told, "you move too slow,
you must live life faster." 

To start the day by a cue from
rays of the rising sun.
To end the day when the day ends,
not only just've begun.

River Trance [Common Meter]

I sit on a green grass riverside,
watching brown waters flow.
Some karst monoliths stand behind
in which scrubby shrubs grow.

I feel my mind could be swept on
down to the sprawling sea,
while my body would stay behind
asleep with back to tree.

And panic and freedom both rise -
untethered from earth's hold.
As I see the future and the past
blended at the threshold.

And space, like time, has no meaning --
just an amorphous blob.
I awaken gasping spastically,
my pulse in a wild throb.

On Second Thought [Common Meter]

The scholar sits, contemplating
the world's perfect order,
but finds that "perfect" is a stretch.
"It's close to the border
between Disorder and Chaos.
mere miles from the junction
of Great Malady and Mayhem
deep within Dysfunction."

Tilted Time [Common Meter]

The timeline 's tilted; time runs away,
speeding ever faster.
As March charges headlong to May,
time has lost its master.

All that I can say, for today
is there's still an arrow.
It doesn't jump from future to past,
but flies like a sparrow.

But don't blame me if tomorrow 
you wake up yesterday, 
and the cars on the interstate
are rolling the wrong way.

Ram Dominion [Common Meter]

I met a ram in Madurai,
'twas tethered to a pole.
Though really it almost met me,
taking its cyclic stroll.

The ram's target was my keister,
but its rope was too short.
Saved by the narrowest margin;
my path I did abort.

The moral of this tale is clear.
If you're in Madurai,
give tethered rams the widest berth,
or kiss your ass goodbye. 

Which Way Did He Go? [Common Meter]

A caterpillar scurried on
at such a rapid pace,
but I forget which way it went
because it lacked a face.

It looked the same this way as that -
bereft of front and back.
And how'd it know which way to go?
It must have had a knack.

Exile [Common Meter]

I'm banished from the world I know,
and cast into darkness.
And I sit within a lonely 
room, accepting starkness.

The plain and empty walls and floors
have nothing left to say.
I'll venture any way I want,
but must remain a stray.

I'm not expecting sympathy.
I know that hour is gone.
I only want it to be known 
I've wandered all along.

Sacrifice Play [Common Meter]

A prayer was made at the altar --
a prayer no one could hear.
A sacrifice had been promised
of someone all held dear.

But not one soul would take the knife,
and do the wicked deed:
to take that life, an unearned life
and speak the evil creed.

They dragged the victim to the rim
of an old volcano.
Just one kick would be all it took;
still, they all said, "Hell no!"

What kind of beastly deity
could fault them for failing?
The kind whose sense of right and wrong
is fucked beyond ailing.

Stormy Shore [Common Meter]

Sitting on cold, volcanic rock
upon a stormy shore,
Watching waves crash, hearing naught but
wind, and crying for more
in a scream that cannot be heard
over nature's harsh din
as I feel the snap of gusty 
wind, through cloth so thin
that it can't hold back nature's force
to draw the heat from bone,
and, feeling under this black sky,
I am now all alone. 

The Shimmer Space [Common Meter]

I fell into a deep dreamhole
amid the broad daylight,
and tumbled and tumbled, stumbling
out in the dark of night.

I lost so many hours of life
where reflections shimmer.
I could not breathe, nor could I float -
I, the swimless swimmer.

I dropped, lost in those reflections.
They were my mind's great curse,
luring me to a shimmer space
that I could not traverse.