MOMENTS

MEMORIAL DAY

should this moment be hung with medals?

the vast sea of evening comes to rest

who will bring a vase of flowers?

it might be a drone strike

or a national security purge of counter terrorists

terrorists of the world unite!

your pensions are at stake

suppose the Change takes out your family anyway?

will you live on a subway bench?

fat chance

the karmic web twitches with security cameras

migrate or die

to a sacred mountain in Tibet?

well then

all you have to do is die

enlightenment follows

there is no (you, me, I, they) to enlighten

and there you have it

what cannot be gotten

BOUNDLESS

now that reality has begun to bypass the propaganda

anyone can see it's not an aberration

the Change is fundamental

some will admit that what has happened is irreversible

and that the causes are baked into how civilization works

also irreversible

so we must not meet Change with change

a great disaster would ensue

but which would be worse?

one that takes down all of us or the owners?

and who owns the propaganda machine?

who says the owners own stuff?

well, there are laws and enforcers

kind of like the Mafia

anyone says they have my best interest in mind

I'm looking for a way out of there

stuff, civilization

ask not what it can do for you

but who you are

LOOK HERE

aborigines run from a camera

words of wisdom are petrified flies

written music is a travesty

did Mark Twain imagine Heidegger?

did either one of them know when to stop?

old jokes don't remember history

this pen does not know limitations

the ink in it defies reason

and continues a dangerous journey

which rests upon the back of a passion flower bumble bee

bumping my camera on the way

to losing its soul

MIRAGE

no man is an Island

God loves you

you are defined by your relations with others

vacillations in the weather are becoming extreme

but here in god's country

between Mount Diablo and the deep blue sea

it's easier to ignore the Change

(not that we don't care)

in plain, it matters less

for now

nonetheless

this I being an illusion

personal relations are less engaging

no man is an (I)land

God is who?

defined by relations with whom?

QUARTET

SEE'S CANDY

the precise instant of success

in riding a bike

is when

for some reason

one forgets about falling

BACK DOOR ZAZEN

while chopping vegetables

the illusion stalls

but nothing changes

PUSHPIN STUDIO

the end of the world is here

as well as its beginning

in between are humans

focused on a few microseconds

FAN DANCE

Ferris wheel with freedom lights

children in bright colors

moving slowly by perspective

silence dreaming

going round the center

of the universe

TAKE FIVE

Hector does not like humans

but he does like Tabitha

she naps on the porch chair

he sits near the porch

Rosie hangs out on the driveway

as I return from a safari in search of peanuts and basil plants

the natives are restless

Tabitha stretches out one paw

Hector squints his eyes when I talk to him

a sign of wary acceptance

Rosie has a rather large lizard

this lizard is not about to roll over and die

they confront each other

it is standing up on its front legs

snout raised defiantly

I tell Rosie she'd best back off

so she sits, perhaps patiently, next to the lizard

and I leave to put dinner on the stove

when I return and look out the window

the lizard is where it was

Rosie gone

then it moves cautiously, slowly, one leg at a time

slooowly across shadowed concrete

as Rosie does when stalking

and then dashes at lizard warp speed across the sunny plain

until disappearing under the garage door