POEM: A 100 Word Sentence on the Risks of High Speed Karma

Mikey stole a motorbike, a high-revving rice rocket, weaving through traffic, leaning this way and that, quickly dodging the slow and the still, riding toward an inevitable fate, rapidly surpassing any chance for a destiny other than a beastly crash, a tumbling and fiery maniacal kind of crash, one resulting in screaming vehicles and flashing lights, punching their blunt red noses onto the scene, disgorging fast moving men and women with hoses and bandages, pretending the hoses were for the burning machine and the bandages were for the rider, but knowing that the hoses would be all they’d need on this run.

POEM: In Praise of Mortal Enemies

If you want to rewire your brain
nothing beats an arch foe.

If you can drop the stone between
the thought and when you throw,

then you can learn to keep the stones
from forming in your mind —

stop fearing being blindsided,
and love being “side” blind —

maybe jettison the moral
superiority

and all the clambering for a
rank of seniority.

To change your brain, just find your bane,
and learn what causes its fear & pain.

Sri Lanka Limerick

There was a clever salesman from Sri Lanka
who tried to decide on a corporate lingua franca.
“Not Tamil,” Helas said…
“No Sinhala,” Tamil’s pled…
“English? – the tongue of imperial propaganda?”

POEM: Rejection

I washed up on the same shore from
which I had tried to swim.
I breathed so hard, but couldn’t recoup
a face that wasn’t grim.

The currents toyed with me, but then
spit me back on the shore
just down the river from that place
I’d been moments before.

With Einsteinian insanity,
I tried again-and-again.
For every river must change its
ways, every now and then.

Three Animal Haiku

I
treed monkeys —
each set of roving eyes
finds its own mark


II
a squirrel sniffs,
smelling the plump acorn
beneath damp leaves


III
a housecat
stalks prey, tiger-like,
no-mind / tail-mind

POEM: Crow in a Combative Stance

metallic beak —
rough striations worn smooth
like rough iron, burnished

feet planted wide–
one fore & one back,
in a combative stance

head low —
beak pointed accusatorily,
swiveling to resettle the eye

then, with flapping wings,

it’s gone

POEM: Raptor Rising [Sonnet]

A raptor climbs: it spirals higher and higher,
and what a chunk of world it must now see.
What’s it like to be that vanishing flyer?
Does it feel fear, or does it glide with glee?

It fears like one who knows not what could be.
Like Icarus, it’s naïve of the Fall?
It must know (but not care,) to be that free!
There’s not a chance its flapping wings will stall,

and still less that it will be downed by squalls.
I envy hawks, but could not live their life —
to test air that couldn’t fill my lungs at all
and climb to heights, yet not know any strife.

Oh climb, my Raptor, ride upon thin air,
and when you reach the earth, I’ll meet you there.

POEM: No Offense, Mr. Mosquito

Source: Wikipedia (Public Domain)

Hey there, Mr. Mosquito,
‘fraid to say, you’ve gotta go.
Sure, Black Death is on the flea,
but you’ve bought us fevers: Yellow, Nile, and Dengue.

And that’s just to name a few.
You’ve killed more folks than anything in the zoo.
There’s Malaria, Zika, and Encephalitis
that make you feel you’ve crossed a bus crash with arthritis.

I’ve never been to Rift Valley or the West Nile;
yet I fear their fevers but not their crocodiles.
Because, like Amazon, you deliver
a thousand miles from the river.

So, I guess I’ll go and get my shots,
and if our paths cross — expect some swats.
Cause when it comes to blood-sucking creatures,
I’d rather have leaches in my breeches.

Limerick of Slovenia

There was a brown bear from Slovenia
who had a bad case of anemia.
While his kin were vegetarian,
he ate campers and carrion —
Hope you don’t meet the iron-shy bear of Slovenia.

POEM: The Ekstasis of a Warm Bed [in a Cold, Snowy Land]

-To watch powder cling to sill and muntin through the frosted panes,
but not be chilled by that crisp whiteness

-To slacken on the back of spastic release – lulled by discordant heartbeats,
while feeling that they — and all — are in perfect accord

-To drift into slumber with no urgency and to awaken noncommittally,
sinking ever deeper into mattress and mind

-To love the snow for its beauty
as much as for its lack of reach