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?

Buckingham Palace Limerick

Photograph of the changing of the guard
A randy guard of Buckingham Palace
stood at attention, but so, too, his phallus.
He did his very best -
stock still like all the rest,
but was exposed by tent and hand callus.

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.

Beekeeper [Limerick]

Photograph of bees taken in the Mekong Delta region south of Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City.)
There was an equanimous beekeeper --
so calm he looked like an upright sleeper.
Slow & quiet on task
'til one got in his mask,
and blinded him with stings to each peeper.

Radio Fan Limerick

A radio fan from Vienna
got no reception with his antenna --
except when wired
to the church spire.
Piety left him on the horns of dilemma.

Windsurfer Limerick

Photograph of windsurfers near San Pedro, Belize.
Some hardcore fanatic windsurfers
found sunny days couldn't match their fervor.
They got it on the brain
to ride a hurricane,
and rode the wind from Jamaica to Port Arthur.

Safari Guide Limerick

Photograph of a female lion taken in Chobe National Park in Botswana.
There was a cocky safari guide
who - of lions - was often quite snide.
He frequently stated
they were overrated,
but his view was different from inside.

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.

Miracle [Limerick]

Photograph of a stained glass window taken in a church in Prague, Czech Republic.
A sinner sat himself down in a pew --
A first-timer, he didn't know what to do.
Then -- blinded by light!
Dazzling color, so bright!
(Miracle repeats daily 'bout half past two.)

Locomotive [Limerick]

Photograph of a steam engine locomotive taken in Tallinn, Estonia.
The man loved travel by locomotive.
It was all of the time in the throat of
tunnels, so dark and deep --
one couldn't see a peep.
He had night vision goggles... and motive.