GARDENING IN THE MINEFIELD
An errant tap root
tapping a triggering device
can quickly juice a careless carrot
The force of cabbage growing
may result in coleslaw fireworks
And the blood of beets
hardly distinguishable
from that of small boys
with hoes
THE CAMEL AND THE MOOD MODIFYING MUNCHER
After a while
the mounting evidence
of mirrors and old family photos
And why am I the one
always wearing the fat suit
Why is it
that there is still
nothing that tastes as good
as it feels not to feel
Why the little camel
sent to bed without supper
Still insures against lack
with a hump on his front
not his back
GRANOLA GRENADES FOR GANDHI
“Even God himself dare not appear to a starving man,
except in the form of bread”
– Mahandas Gandhi
So many fellow women and men today
down at the corner of have and have not
asking for a little of what we’ve got
Flying cardboard signs that say
“I’m a hungry homeless vet”
or one I saw the other day
“the repo’d my Lear Jet”
Being a poet what I mostly have is words
but remembering the words of Gandhi
I decide instead of something to read
I’ll give them what they really need
It’s simple enough, just take an elastic band
and wrap three dollar bills around a bar
you can place them in their hand
or you can throw them pretty far
If monks balance the world with prayer
perhaps these souls balance it with pain
So if they don’t like granola, that’s OK with me
the carnivores can afford to attack a Big Mac
and the thirsty are half way to a six pack
THANKSGIVING
The natives did share their food with the
first settlers
But
It is well documented
though not well known
that the first official Thanksgiving
(proclaimed by the governor of the
Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1637)
was in celebration of a massacre of 700 Pequot
men, women, and children gathered together
for their own dance of thanks
Ordered out of their home they were shot as
they came forth; those who stayed inside
were burned alive
We have a long history of freedom
We have freed the Americans from America
We are now freeing the Iraquis from Iraq
There will feasting when the boys come back
DINNER WITH ROBERT BLY
Bly orders oysters like Hafiz and Rumi
Richest food on the menu
Swallows them whole
Offers them to all who share his table
MOSSBANK
Chinese café
big – small – happy
three symbols for me