IMMORTALITY
If a leaf should fall
on your perfect wet cement
Do not reach for the trowel
to dig it out and smooth it over
Lift it carefully
Leave its jagged print
along with finger and thumb
on each side of the winding stem
There will be no need to impress
with your initials, or the date
GIVE ME THAT OLD RHYME RELIGION
(Happy 400th bible birthday)
The King James Bible is filled with poetry
everything since seems reduced to prose
why they did it – God only knows
From pulpits we hear more hate of late
– and politics and damnation
– and I sure miss the celebration
The Song of David is supposed to be a song
taking away the music just seems wrong
As for me, in the valley of the shadow
I want to be able to sing
and to feel God singing along
And if after the seventh trumpet note
we find that the big He or She
is an accountant – not a poet
we’re in a lot of trouble – you and me
CULPA
Perhaps there is no such thing
as an innocent bystander
Not even my relatives
the ever so neutral Swiss
holding the combatants
coats and wallets
hoping to win
no matter who loses
STILL HERE
(Holocaust Remembrance Day 2012)
I was born while you were dying
my birthmark is a blue tattoo
For seventy years I’ve been trying
to remember and forget
There are museums and deniers
there are survivors of survivors
People are still writing poems
the damn thing won’t wash off
AMERICA ATTACKS AMERICA
There is nothing more prejudiced
than our immune system
It is always on the lookout
for anything different
to isolate and kill
If this were not so
we would be dead
faster than a scratch
from a dirty clawed cat
Sometimes the system messes up
and attacks the healthy cells instead
This is an auto-immune-disease
and the response must be suppressed
The body personal is hardly different
from the body politic
anything different looks dangerous
On this continent almost everyone
is a transplant and a threat
a lot of immune response arises from that
A black man in a white house
must be removed as soon as possible
even though he is a part of us
A course of immune-suppressants
must be started as soon as possible
or the patient will most likely die
In the body personal I don’t know
the names of any of the drugs
In the body politic it might be love
IN EULOGIES RECOUNT
Time spent in hammocks
watching the wind
having its way with branches
and light lightly licking the leaves
If not considered in the sum
should at least be added to the total
BROTHERS
We clean the pond
the better to see
the multi-colored Koi
The better to meditate upon
their seeming happy life
No evidence of any urge
to grow legs adapt lungs
and join us in the race
OIL SPILL
Another oil spill
watching the spreading Rorschach
we see ourselves
JUNG HAIKU
Waking us in dreams
another frog hits the water
Jung is haiku too
CHRIST AND MARX
Pope and Castro meet
Christ and Marx much in common
power hoggers hug