warm night in mid-May
Rampal's flute notes come
lilting
magically through haze
Papageno plays panpipes
and is dressed up in
feathers
it's the same with birds
some adorned more
splendidly
than their drab brothers
in folk costumes and shyly
the arch-duchesses
appear
full moon overhead
lights up the castle
turrets
glistens on the moat
while the shogun is plotting
his samurai write
tanka
Ah such devotion
the forty-seven ronin
self-slain
for honor!
"pro patria mori," writes
dying Owen,
"The Old Lie"
grass growing rampant
over the graves of
heroes
shadows lengthening
peaceful spring in the heartland
until all hell
exploded
cold rain and wind gusts
a hundred swirling
petals
fly from the branches
Mojave yuccas blooming
horizon to horizon
at Santiam Pass
band of mustangs mill
around
stirring up dust clouds
he is lovesick and loony
from long nights of moon
gazing
sleepy hoo-hooing
of the little spotted owl
log
trucks rolling by
stupidity of humans
poaching bears for gall
bladders
doing a sun dance
yellow butterfly tiptoes
over the
tulips
our thornless blackberry vines
have neither thorns
nor berries
among the brambles
dry pellets of a rabbit
that
used to live there
O the guffaws when he says
"smokeless
tobacco" in camp
she tries to recall
the reason for loving him ...
a
far falling star
endeared to one another
by quirks once so
annoying
a mosquito plays
around the cook's bare
midriff
hamburgers sizzling
the downed pilot feeds on algae
amphibians and
larvae
humming it softly
"a rainy night in
Georgia"
hoping for his call
cry of a lone red-tailed hawk
fills the desert
emptiness
School of Karate
the black belt seifu's
wham/thunk
splits the board in two
he boasts of skills in boxing
I find out he means
Tai Chi
that full moon rising
is a knock-out of a moon
from
any viewpoint
just before the first dawn light
a strange moment
of arrest
strand of spider's web
crisscrosses the mountain trail
...
we bend -- pass under
crawling through the cave entrance
he forgot he had
gained girth
primate exhibit ...
some look a lot like the
folks
looking in on them
discovery of "Lucy"
our hominid
ancestor
how quickly they go
the cherry blossoms of
spring
only to return
the wish to be young again
and not make the same
old mistakes