does a bird have to fly near your face

does a bird have to fly near your face 

to bring you back?

does a dragonfly need an arrow to point
meaning "follow me?"





you cannot be distracted by nature
only returned to
away from what has distracted you
like measly meddlers
muddy boot prints
art sales and royalties
starring attractions               being famous 
or unknown
progress
or regression
instead of 'being here now' suggestions

through mouths to feed
submissions to 
oppressions abounding
requiring resounding fortitude
to pass through the night
when nothing seems right
and catch the distraction
that workers might

10-27-14

it's not very clear

it's not very clear 
how the hand-driven plow
turns the soil gray
how it putters and smokes
stumbling along the patties where 
bonfires of rice stalks ash the land
send the smoke sky high
like in a bedroom at midnight
choking while we're toking
on hits and bongs and incense burning
smoke hiding abstract smoke signals
only scooters fumes here, uninspired
un-inspected
like cigarettes drooping from motor mouths
oily smoke from mothers on wheels
godly smoke blown heavenward 
and acid smoke from across the strait in China
smoke in dead air pockets
choking mountains
cataract mountains
fumigation
egrets and dragonflies
in need of ventilation

my son's pain doesn't affect her

my son's pain doesn't affect her
to sympathy or love
it tarnishes the warmth 
that took a weekend to brew
the intruder she confused 
as i fended and took a bite
what did she place on the table
but bitter herbs 
and waited to hear me say 'how sweet'
as my son shuffled back to the basement
no natural interest at all

what made the tears so salty 
with a cross to bearably bear
she coexisted
his sisters insisted
grandma and auntie resisted



so she threw her pain into my lap
for me to drain away
after years of saplings
as tall as the trees would grow
still no affection
just a drag from undertow
couldn't see two crazy lovers
loving each other crazily
not unlike her and me
and the love that bore fruit in time

10-6-14

am i made whole by this delivery from Brooklyn

am i made whole by this delivery from Brooklyn
as migratory birds flock south over the Han
over the mountains of Taiwan
i am grounded
not the movable type
books that follow me till death we part
with pages that swing 
from the past into the future
look at all the migratory verbs
and me, like a dragonfly of indecision
hovering in tandem with my rider
resting on pages of unpublished rhyme

10-3-14

landscape so luminous, scornful of accessories

heat feels hotter in a sweat-matted t-shirt
breeze doesn't pass through clogged pores
egrets are returning
although i feel this burning
they stand tall and cool on Han River shores

as i consider doing a strip tease
for the fortunate couple with their bikes
long-sleeved and pants
to keep their yellow bodies white
dangling legs over ledge of Han River dykes

as egrets eight stand and wait
alas, a cloud has come to offer shade
what for do i hesitate
when i can excrecate from
exaggerated heat my t-shirt has made

makes her hot, wants a drink
they get up to dress heads, hands, and necks
sees my torso, what does she think
her companion rides off and leaves her 
what the heck! 

i'm
too sexy for my shirt
too sexy for my bike
va-va-va voom
"the body is everything"*
'sfoga o schiatta'**

*Samuel Butler
** Italian - 'relieve yourself or burst'

9-26-14

the choice is ours how we're going to pay

the choice is ours how we're going to pay
someone in New York says we owe
just as sure as we came here
baby, we just had to go

what the i ching said 
about letting a child go home
with a choice we heard in her head
she did not say "no"

that filthy communal house with"A"
made us both say "Oh!"
we can wait to sell another day
after the winter's snow

let the wife talk with Kelly
what is right under the circumstance
she cannot have it both ways
there are no answers; only dances

choose as the feeling suits you
we took our house "as is"
benefitted from its conveniences
that is where we chose to live

then evil entered at an "open house" sale
a stain that will remain
without a chance to defend ourselves
even the new owners will have the pain

no one to defend us in absentia
move on and outward, Amanda and Alberta
let the blackmail pittance afford the city
does it pay? ask Amos and Hosea

9-25-14

an excellent two days of a seven-day weekend, thwarted

an excellent two days of a seven-day weekend, thwarted
from my own desire, none of my own undoing
with flexibility and plan "b" trappings
Funk and Wagnalls takes a radical turn right
after entering the Bashi Channel
not radical enough to spare my plans for Taipei
or avoid high speed rail cancellation 
no Frankenstein browsing in Ding-Hao 
or harmonica poetry performance at Red Room 
or peoples' environmental climate march
because of the changed environment

it will be bags of ramen noodles for us
with little flavor packs of tasty gutter oil
and endless loops of typhoon trajectory on TV
to keep the palm trees on the patio
tied to the stakes around the ledge

bring in the brawny beach chair projectile
and warm the chair cushion in front of Nala
Nala who lies comfortably between keyboard and monitor
as, from this bench, i bid farewell to the last Han River egret
that cackles a coughing whoop
and catches a cacophony of breezes
before it rains off to its shelter
when the torrents outside of lashing winds  never end
bending banks of thistle in a counter-clockwise clash
ripping bushes of weeds and  trees 
by their desperate dangling limbs

until the sun, washed of smog, reappears o'er the mountains
and a dozen posts have been added to my blogs
do things get picked up, put back, or carried away
on the day after the day
like Scotland Scots, unaware of the terror
who fail to break from England away

9-19-14