100 Short Poems
When death arrived
The eyes lost focus.
Breathing became erratic.
The body stopped moving
and began to cool from the feet up.
Eternity moved in.
Bodies at Buna Beach
(Photograph at Papua new Guinea,1943)
Three lie splayed on the wet sand
just above the calm retreating surf,
the nearest one half burrowed in.
All are foreground to a half-sunk boat,
its prow tilting up toward the sky.
Coronation
In a white satin gown embroidered with gold and silver thread
the princess rode in the Coach of State drawn by eight gray geldings.
Wearing a gold crown and coronation ring, she took an oath.
The abbey audience cheered: "God save the Queen!"
Outside, eight calm grey geldings each ate an apple.
Little Boy
Detonated at an altitude of 2,000 feet.
Above, rising to a height of 45,000 feet
the boiling, purple mushroom cloud.
Below, 7,000 degrees Fahrenheit instantly.
People vaporized over half a mile away.
In my cell
In the bright Spring sky the giddy wind
makes the green tree tops dance and wave.
Alone inside, I read Apollinaire's Selected Poems.
In the bright Spring sky the giddy wind
makes the green tree tops dance and wave.
The cynical
await that clarifying moment
or the difference in illumination
in which at last they will finally
recognize the hidden strangers
among all the familiar faces.
High Yellow Woman
I stay well away these days from both bar and brothel.
Like all vices, they became both tiring and treacherous.
Much better now, I can see you throughout the day.
There may be noted beauties darker or lighter
But not any one that suits my glad heart better.
Fire Eater
Bosnia. Somalia. Chechnya. Syria. Yemen.
For years I went where most reporters wouldn't.
But eventually I married, settled, began an expat family.
Then Russians invaded and shot me dead in the street
my splayed limbs calling for others to find and report on.
Nature Mort
Bathed in early Spring sunshine
the sparrow busy pecking for food
is focused on life and necessities,
oblivious to other concerns, like
the assassin cat creeping closer.
Parish Church
In the nave, near the sacristy,
a large and bloody crucified Christ,
mouth agape, head back, eyes wide,
flanked by an insipid praying Mary,
distinguished only by glinting glass eyes
Remorseless
There is a brutal beauty in the sleek tiger
atop the still steaming carcass that feeds it.
But something only foul and irredeemable
in the politician slandering chair-bound prey.
These pols have no shame, but they should.
Still Life
The painting shows me its sumptuous, undying flowers.
I show it my face, the features calm and composed.
Eventually, nourished but not sated, I will move on.
The painting will remain, spot lit and fixed to the wall,
for others passing to perhaps notice and inhabit awhile.
February 2022
Children's coats hang on pegs
beyond a shattered front wall.
With one exception,
no one wanted
this senseless war.