Bus Riding

The Daumier-like faces

Clinging to logs
being tossed about
on the bus
me hovering
like a dragon fly
Seeing
Can I help?
Stones hide in each one
if not hope
at least a flickering
of a soul.

Cement headed drivers
(they have to be)
mourn the human condition
All seek shelter in a world
other than their own.

Niches form to isolate.
If you don't find a niche
you are what I call a breakaway,
or at least you ride the range.

As soon as the faces are spoken
to, ah a light exchanges,
warms the atmosphere,
and everyone even the driver
lurches with a purpose.

---

Robin's Nest

When the little bird
in the cuckoo clock
found the switch
in the back
the energy released
was beyond belief – the only child
found a mate:
A wild puppet master
who would not rest.
Always the outsider
he looked into you
pulling on your strings
peering into you
who couldn’t stop laughing.

---

Unknown

I say red is blue not red.

Big money backs me.

Red becomes blue. The money,

the creator of the shift,

means everything.

It would take a lot

of money to change

it back again.

Maintaining the status quo,

upholding tradition

is what the vast majority

of people do or wish they could.

The majority of Americans 

who run things like public

schools, the House of Representatives,

a Kiwanis Club have so

much power

that quite often they are able

to prevent themselves

from learning something

that might be very good for them.

This power is caused

by a false pride.

If the people cannot see

what's good for them

they will often

choose what is bad.

The bad will have long term

consequences and further

complicate the people’s search

for the good.

---

In the Beginning

One becomes two.

Two became the many.

Looking at each other

making faces furrowing,

smiling, pointing, laughing.

In time they approached

other members of their society

and entertainment began – 

In the Beginning.

Entertainment as an activity

grew slowly; there were more

important things to do.

By 3000 B.C. (at least) all forms

of entertainment

from religious ritual

to epic poetry

were finally in place.

---

The Antidote

A naked human

the feeling their skin creates

the light gleaming off

the chrome bicycle handle

salty, foaming ocean water

the song living inside

the face containing all

faces all the vaccines

all the dogs we have created

Hammer, Wood and nail

the touching of the horns

the deepening breath

of humility

early Antonioni.

In general people define themselves

more by their hates

than their loves. Hate sticks

to their ribs. Love is all

around like the sky.

O, How the mighty human multiplies

while the poetic traits

in man are torn asunder. 

Submerged

Inundated

By lies-a tapestry

devoted to Mammon

Has eroded our belief

in an effective communication

transmogrifying the so important

effects of our democracy.

Satisfied by cheap gods

and mind numbing

cultural repetitions

we have lost 

our knowledge of The Good.

Now we will have to

start all over again.

---

In This Time

Our first dream

is of course the womb.

The second is the expulsion 

and third is our struggle,

our work, to create

a womb-like existence

in the waking world.

We walkabout 

in all forms

strutting, barely balancing,

crawling, sliding, flying,

keeping the thought

and the memory of that thought

from wrinkling.

Every now and then

we play small parts

in peoples’ lives.

To transcend loneliness

we live our episodic lives

as if we were expanding

through the eyes

of a distant narrator

or even better still

we hide in the weightless

world of dreams.

For me it’s all about

the feeling. What happened,

what’s happening? 

I define it simply.

I ask do I want to see

that person, do that thing,

go here, stay there?

I feel it out and decide

and try not to put

a label on it.

To define why I feel

a certain way

would be a blasphemy.

---

At This Moment

The fat people seem to be

hustling me

into indolence. 

Though they move swiftly

when necessary

leaving me to wonder

will I be able to mirror

their grace?

I eat like a horse

elongating my jaw

cracking each morsel.

Before destruction there is misuse,

then abuse and finally

the never ending pain.

---

Beauty

Handprints discovered

in a cave near Pendejo, 

New Mexico are carbon-14

dated to around 40,000 B.C.

The magic being unearthed

in Troy

seat of the Mycenaean Age;

the regal profundity 

of all hidden tombs

the astounding myths

of The Aegean Sea.