• FOR ETERNITY

    Mother goneresting perhaps next toher daughter who lingereduntil even she grew tiredof battling the cells thatwere slowly consuming her,now with someone to continuetheir argument for the restof eternity.


  • MISSING SONGS

    The problem, or one of them, isthe lack of music today. We haveall manner of what people call music,but not the music of the sortwe need, needed once and found,as we stormed the bastionsand bastards who mired us in war,who shunned darker brothersand sisters, who made alienablebasic rights to half of us withoutrhyme or reason,…


  • CANINE

    The dog refuses to walkaround the house and checkthe driveway, and sothe shells will rain on the villageas they do each time she senses fear. She has a sight beyond thatI can fathom, curled underthe heat vent, as thoughthe cries of children carryin her dreams, her taildances against the grate. On most nights when she…


  • THEM, AGAIN

    They say that you shouldnever approach or toucha small bird, lest it he shunned,perhaps to death, by your scent. I’ve never been one to listento any “them” with whom Icannot argue face to face,and so seeing the small bird on the ground curledin its nest, staring upat the branch from whichshe parachuted groundward I scoop…


  • AVERAGE

    I am indistinct, maleof reasonable heightand weight, a bit muchmore than I care,but hardly distinct. I have not sufferedmysogeny, beenoverlooked forbeing the wronggender, as ifthere is rightand wrong. I have not feltthe stingof racism, I ammerely oneof the lemmingsmarching alongto the abysscertain of myprivilege, ableto cede myhumanity.


  • TŌSU’S MOON

    If you havea full half knowledgewill you be contentor strive for full knowledgeand how will you knowwhen you have it.Remember thatyou measure knowledgeonly as it departsand he who knowswhat he knowsis the greatest fool. A reflection on Case 13 of the Shobogenzo (Dogen’s True Dharma Eye) Koans


  • IF ONLY

    As I have aged, I hopeI have gotten smarteror at least more ableto adapt to life’s issues. But there are still areaswhere knowledge fails,where you cannot hopeto attain what you want. World peace is one such,honest politicians another,and the list could go onbut you get the picture. The ultimate failure howeveris imagining that you can…


  • WALLS

    It is one thingto build a wallthat othersstop and admire,yet make ithigh enoughthey don’lt thinkof climbing over it. Walls are meantto keep, inor out is neverclear, and actuallyit is always both,for a walltakes no sides,a silent sentinel. And no wallis impenetrableand unscalablesave that surroundingthe heartless oneswho are destinedto die alonein anger.


  • CONVERSATION

    Arising into nightthe departing suntangoes away with its cloud,memories soon forgotten.Other dancers take the stage,now a romance, nowa war dance, feathers raisedin prayer to unseen gods.Night will soon bringits curtain across this stage,the avian cast’s final bows takenthe theatre will darken, awaitinganother performance,a new script tomorrow,but for this solitary momentof frozen grace, it is wewho…


  • BLESSED

    Barchu, for the slugs of the Chinese knockoff AK47 which tore through his legs, twisting to avoid the artery and nerves. Barchu, for the moon hanging in the frosted night seeking shelter in the mist cutting into me, lashing me to reality. Barchu, for their memory the small circle of candles that burn eternally in…