KARMA TOAST

HERITAGE DAY

firenadoes, crystal chandeliers, San Bruno explosion

a surveillance system watches

fire opal, mine fires, fire in her eyes

the Sun – source of life

and death as conditions change

burial by cremation

Hiroshima:

now I am become Shiva

the Change:

now I am oil

the wheel of life:

an oxcart

BART station

wheels all rolling the same

big fire burnin'

big wheel turnin'

plastic bottles everywhere

redemption is for believers and coupon holders

get a haircut or die

but get it soon because hair keeps on growing

Spanish moss on oak trees, though, is ghastly

lynchings, gurgled warnings

TV people drive to work in computers

entertainment for the kids on back seat screens

GPS and directions for those with front seat views

cameras record the fun, black boxes to exonerate management

seat belts and air bags to secure slavery clothed in debt

rollin', rollin' on the freeway

TURNAROUND

say you're driving to work when

suddenly

the car has a heart attack and dies

brakes and steering stop working

big accident

worries over

the corporation hunkers in denial

your outraged survivors get no response

paste up bureaucrats make symbolic noises

which end with the admission that nothing will be done

greed is good

the International Brotherhood of Monks takes note

goes on a hunger strike

it's not a matter of good versus evil

but rather who's running the show

three prostitutes playing marbles on a dusty corner

the smallest pulls out her Aggie

gotcha!

DIFFUSION

all the days of making sense

are the borders of a picture

that serve as prison guards

this word must end to make space for the next

flagship on a sea of chaos

hear the lap of rhythmic waves

symbols that leak reality

at risk of drowning

bleeding off towards a bumble bee

see scar faced Picasso

the graffiti pace of everyday life

bald eyed sky in a drought preening parrot

screaming “pretty bird” in some anonymous back yard

where maiden hair ferns are suffering

in presumed karmic punishment

for tattered edges not quite parchment yet

fluttering in the wake of a Muni bus

its daytime life alive in the mind of a driver

asleep at midnight

far off the pages of any published schedule

dragons and Titanic Freudian horse feathers

ruffling digital fantasies that should really wake everyone up

to how hamburger minds are shaped into patties

and the retributions of salmonella are treated mercifully

by doctors without borders

ROBOSLAVES

as complexity increases

coping decreases

symptoms of stress appear

a string of lightning strike murders

ending in a suicide

catastrophic oil rigs, refineries, rail road tankers

an electric grid malfunctions

millions in the dark

distribution systems vulnerable to hacker attacks

seances are out of fashion now

technology is in

the new sorcerers do not need apprentices

built with slaves

grand mansions and capitols of power

are choked with smoke and haze

glowing marvelously at sunset

spectacular in High Definition to the delight

of mission reporters

who jet to ports of felicity

preaching good weather

greasing the gears of GNP

pleasing the magicians

RECIPE

within the span of one body

many lifetimes

each set of circumstances a nomadic tent

each unique

uncivilized nature subsumes it all

and today's flower words become flour

spread them with cinnamon and sugar

add a little butter

bake at 98.6 degrees