A Prayer for Bettina Joseph

Five years old looks eighty in Haiti
A scratch becomes a death sentence.
A budget crunch in the land
Of plenty of milk and honey.
No money for nonessentials
As flights to hospitals,
Only for orphans already paid for.
Have mercy on the souls of those
Not saved by televised concerts,
Texted dollars and PTA cookie drives.

Early Morning Haiku

My fat turtle moon

Canopy of dancing light

Greet the soft blue dawn.

Wisdom of Rain

This morning before dawn

I listened to a conversation

Of the rain that said to me,

No matter what you people do

In what ever name you know me by,

How ever many die in that name,

The sound of rain falling

From this laurel tree will not change.
　
　
　

The Poet/ for Pablo Neruda

Making love with words
Bread for the soul flows
From pockets of love
A river of stars in the sky
Earthly bodies could do no justice
To the way every syllable caresses
Pulses through the senses

The moon of your mouth
Spills silver throughout
This small universe
One knows without knowing
Senses without feeling
The deepest river of all
Courses through the canyons
Of life's essence..

The Alchemist

　
If on a winter’s night

I came upon you

Lying in the snow

Heart turned to stone.

I’d take you to my breast

Brush snow

From the brow

Creased by care

Kiss your mouth

Ignite the fire melt

Your frozen heart

To beat in synchrony

With mine.

Reflections

As you age
You reach a place
Where you begin to see
Your parents in your face.
As your children age
If you are so fortunate,
You begin to see,
Your own face in their’s.

Round and round
The mirror goes,
Telling the story of generations,
Past and present
No true death will come.
One sows his own memory
Growing beyond tomorrow.

Appetizers

Rhode Island’s pride,
Flame feathered beauties
With no thought of fate,
Strut the farmyard runway
Plump, ample breasts
On proud display.
Enough to make one salivate
For a Sunday feast of
Buttery biscuits en fricassee
On a plain and lowly Thursday.