Beetle [Lyric Poem]

Photograph of beetle in Botswana, near the Chobe River.
A Beetle that was built like a tank
Crawled over a blazing riverbank
Now as any sane one would think
It should head straight for the drink
To cool off its little ole toes.
But as astute readers will know,
It hasn't really got any toes,
So, it can walk hot sands real slow.

River Taco [Lyric Poem]

Photograph of Hippopotamus in the Chobe River, between Botswana and Namibia.
We kayak where lives Hippopotamus,
And hope it isn't submerged, a-bottom us.
With kayak a quite crunchy hard shell --
Us: savory filling that screams and yells, --
We'll be a three-bite river taco to hell.

Chiaroscuro Clouds [Haiku]

Photograph of clouds in various shades of light and dark taken at Caye Caulker, Belize.
at days end,
clouds not burning bright white
sink into black.

Wind Snitch [Free Verse]

Photograph of a wind turbine under blue skies. Taken along the highway between Budapest and Vienna.
The straight-stemmed turbines
are tattletales,
telling all about the stealthy
thief sneaking overhead.

With no clouds in the sky,
the wind could slip
out over the treetops,
and no one would know.

But the turbines turn,
slow as Taiji titans,
letting no movement
go untaxed.

Last Blossom [Haiku]

bloom-laden Cherry
tree attracts no viewers;
the last blossom does.

Fly [Haiku]

Photograph of a fly on a leaf, taken in Mussoorie.
fly in Summer,
buzzes around a cow --
dodging whip-tail.

Sunburst Fungi [Haiku]

Photograph of joint-toothed moss and tiny mushrooms taken near Mussoorie, Uttarakhand, India.
under thick moss,
two tiny mushrooms cause
sunburst guitar-mind.

Dancing Dragon [Lyric Poem]

Photograph of the head of a dancing dragon taken in Melaka, Malaysia.
A dancing dragon winds
through streets of Chinatown.
Head pivots, nods, and turns
as it looks all around.

I hope its golden eye
will not catch sight of me
because its big, curved fangs
do not look so friendly.

You may say its paper,
and those teeth can't do harm,
but there's life in its moves
that's cause of my alarm.

Bird on a Wire [Haiku]

Photograph taken in Lucknow, India.
a bird alights
onto a windswept wire;
then seems to doze.

Smoke Rise [Haiku]

Photograph taken from a bridge over the Nam Song River in Vang Vieng, Laos.
white smoke rises downriver:
backdropped by black mountains.