Understory [Haiku]

big-leafed saplings
line the understory:
wee cascade murmurs.

DAILY PHOTO: Yellow River Park

Foggy Fort [Senryū]

Photograph taken atop Hrad Devín, near Bratislava on a foggy December day.
high on a hill fort --
enshrouded in clouds;
one can see for... meters?

The Fig Treatment [Free Verse]

Photograph of a Buddha head carving enveloped by Strangler Fig at Wat Mahathat in Ayutthaya, Thailand.
On a scale from
"this is cozy"
to
"my skull is cracking,"
I wonder how the fig tree
at Wat Mahathat treats
the Buddha's head?

Tainted (Free Verse)

Photograph taken at Andersonville National Historic Site in central Georgia.
A gorgeous day:
the sky is blue;
the air is crisp,
and a bird swoops in low
over the field to land
in search of insects.

The sign is kind of a bummer:

It tells me that 13,000
people died here --
most by shitting themselves
into unconsciousness.
(it doesn't use those exact words.)

This is Andersonville --
site of a Civil War prison camp.

Here, I believe in ghosts.
I don't believe in ghosts
when drinking my morning coffee
at my dining room table.
I don't believe in them when I
turn off my bedside lamp.
I don't believe in them anywhere --
anywhere else -- really.

But here they vibrate up
through my boot heals,
and I fear I may
shit myself.

DAILY PHOTO: Ferrys on the Perfume River

Photograph of a docked river ferry on Hue's Perfume River.
Photograph showing two ornate ferries on the Perfume River as it runs through Huế, Vietnam.

DAILY PHOTO: Zambezi River Afternoon

Image

Photograph of the Zambezi River between Zambia and Zimbabwe as the sun is getting low.

DAILY PHOTO: Angry Adolescent Tusker

Photograph of an aggressive adolescent elephant in Botswana's Chobe National Park.
Photograph of a posturing young tusker near the Chobe River's edge in Botswana.

Felonious Fig [Free Verse]

Photograph of a Strangler Fig straddling a stone wall -- taken at Ta Prom, Angkor, Cambodia.
I thought I caught a fig tree,
escaping over a stone wall,
but when I turned my attention
upon it, it stayed so very still.

DAILY PHOTO: Helsinki from the Ferry

Image

Photograph of the Helsinki waterfront taken from the ferry to Suomenlinna with seagulls in tow.