Friday, November 21, 2014

winding river, never straight

winding river, never straight
straying from the big debate
at the motor humming factory
that does not use your energy
just pours into and weakens the river

the next eventuality around the bend
will reach me like a dear old friend
revelry snaps ham radio's waves
a dinner for the Jewish slave
i will snorkle shallow, scuba deep

by vermillion cliffs of Page made deep
the trough gets worn down, rivers seep
like the moaning at open microphones
zoned for fossils' broken bones
at home in red room all alone

as Crusoe, Fogg, and Polo do
Friday, Passepartout, Nicolo & Maffeo are you 
a journey unmeasurable in distance or time meant
not gold or spices or elephant
worth fines levied against me to be on my way

on my way like the rivers that people all pass
a doer, a giver, a home, and a lass
the shore lined with circuses
the onions many surfaces
by living have i done to deserve this

so wind, you Han River, onward wind 
please to us be gentle and kind
though squeezed by sooty motor roads
and channeled by heavy overloads
thy will be done, as it is, like heaven

11-22-14




Sunday, November 16, 2014

in honor of today's fresh air

in honor of today's fresh air 
ride the Han without a mask
drink the oxygen in
let the wind seethe
around my knees 

with respect to rare stars seen at night
look forthrightly though opened eyes
the dark blue contrasted with twinkling bright
sore vision's remarkable sight
not squint and rub

even bursts of burning hay 
in the azure blown away
trash of Buddha ash dissolved
skyward silky streaks of soot
in pants of heaven pockets

the Han in khakis slipping away
stops to reconsider 
in irreversible streams 
in dreams it seems
then blue skies turn to gray

leaves on distant mountain trees
i'm petrified to look
are gone again before the dawn
sharpness being not the norm
once was there once more

11-16-14








Wednesday, November 5, 2014

my good life has a lot to do with yours

my good life has a lot to do with yours
if it is not your period
or the coffee brewed
then it must be you making me bitter

i see your friend in Hokkaido 

vacationing with her husband
when you couldn't book us a room, you said
yet you made plans to visit Tokyo without me

you dressed like it was cleaning day

to see a free outdoor concert
and wore the same costume
for the Halloween party afterwards

without clear plans or directions

you scoff at my suggestion for a snack
but stop at a night market on the way
without a map for getting back

there's cigarette smoke in the night club

you're bothered by it and then
instead of doing your part to make it smart
find it better to do nothing again

noise i made chasing the cat off the tree

woke you up from your sleep
was more annoying to you
than the cat was to me

your midnight was noon in an e-mail you wrote

with our daughter cold in an unheated furnace
it left you off the hook 
instead of getting you by the throat

thinking how lonely i am without friends

at least, unlike you, i'm trying to meet them
i'm stuck with some creeps that deny me
and peers that blow me off 

the windy north-westerlies kick up the soil

from rice patties harvested and barren
i'm kicking up dust in my yearning
while the fire inside is churning

my good life to do

has less to do with you
it is not the life i would wish
but you're not putting enough on my dish

my life, like piss on an elevator floor

goes up and goes down with nowhere to roll
unlike rushing waters near the shallow Han
or nooks where still waters run deep

the butterflies scorn me

the pigeons cannot fly into the wind
it makes my life wonderfully windy
i sail on the breeze of my wife 

whichever way she blows me


11-3-14