DAILY PHOTO: Sculpture at Jerman Beach, Bali

Taken on New Years Eve 2022 in Kuta, Bali
At sunset, Pantai Jerman

DAILY PHOTO: Strange Statues of the Sacred Monkey Forest

Bad Parenting [Common Meter]

I don't mean to cast aspersions,
but it would seem to me
parents shouldn't give a child stabby
things 'fore the age of three.

I don't know whether this household
has a pup or kitty,
but if the kid can spear the floor
the pets ain't look'n pretty.

Saying a babe shouldn't have a spear,
you'll call me "left-wing nut,"
but I don't like dog-on-a-stick:
even if it's a mutt. 

Tiny Tank [Free Verse]

Someone put a tiny, limp-gunned tank 
on Danube west bank --
in Budapest, opposite Parliament.

Unsubtle symbolism, indeed,
but worth noting:

The might of violence
made feeble in the face of democracy,
and all that.

So true,
and yet so few
seem to believe it.

We seem to believe
that matching savagery
is the key to strategy
in opposing the extreme,

but then we've really just made more
extremism, haven't we?

Bronze Goblin [Free Verse]

The bronze goblin 
rides the world.

Its wide eyes always open,
taking in everything 
that happens on the street:

brisk business-like strides
of mid-morning,

mid-day strolls,

slumped evening plods,

midnight staggers,

and witching hour stumbles.

It sees you when you're meeting,
and knows when it's legit.

DAILY PHOTO: Sculpture and Façade of Blumentál Church, Bratislava

Image

DAILY PHOTO: Where Old Commies Go to Die, Budapest

Taken in the summer of 2002 at the Szoborpark [Memento Park] outside Budapest

Apparently, reaching for things was big with the Commies. I couldn’t help but notice that a lot of the statues in Budapest’s Szoborpark [Memento Park] (the place where all the old rounded-up Commie artwork was taken to be scrutinized without being honored.) I assume they didn’t often catch what they were reaching for, or they wouldn’t have died out, having their art moved out to low-rent suburbs.