Two Weeks’ Work
Every Public Agency
Together,

And Today,
Everything’s Different:
We’re Locked Down.

Government,
Where Were You for Fifty Weeks,
All Year Long?

November,
Election Day is Coming:
Remember!

©21Mar20 @DracoTalpus #haiku #skinnyHaiku

Phileas Fogg,
On a brigantine sledge,
Braved the Omaha wind
As it twirled.
So, Jules Verne might say
That a full eighty days
Is plenty to travel the world.

Amelia Earhart
Crossed the sea –
The quickliest feat
…For a girl –
In twelve hundred forty
Short minutes, you know:
Others failed, but gave it a whirl.

Rosemary Doyle,
Our wonderful mum,
Exceeded these
Feats of grand scale!
She has crossed oceans faster,
Breezed over Great Plains,
And – without perspiration – prevailed!

Carefully, casually,
She raised five kids:
‘Neath our burden
She never collapsed.
Loving and giving
Us lives we are living.
Have there – really – eight decades elapsed?

Octogenarian?
Silliest word:
It sounds like
A sea creature’s vet,
But if you want true fun,
Then just orbit the sun
Eighty times, like our mom:  It’s no sweat!


© 2Mar2018 DracoTalpus
For Rosemary N. Doyle
On the occasion of her 80th birthday

Tiny tawny girl next door,
Watch you scrub your kitchen floor.
Doggie down there, on all four:
I can’t wait ‘til you spill some more.

Laundry day, your fragrance drifts
Through my screen: My spirit lifts.
Subtle scents, your careless gifts,
And through each one, my keen nose sifts.

Singing, humming, filled with glee:
You wash your dishes, dutifully.
I hear you, though I cannot see,
How drippy-wet and wonderfully?

Accomp’nied by Spanish guitar,
This summer day, you wash your car.
Flamenco skirt, my jaw ajar,
On tippy-toes, you’ve stretched too far!

Then one day, from the box you came,
Bearing junk mail with my name.
I quickly turned to hide my shame.
You’d caught me staring, just the same.

My name, without lifting her head,
From that misguided missive, read.
Upset?  Not yet.  She smiled, instead,
Then took me by my arm, and said,

“I must confide, my next-door boy,
I play with you: my sweetest toy.
All parts and parcels of my ploy,
I mean to share what you enjoy.

“I scrub the floor where you can see.
I perfume all of my laundry.
I softly sing each melody,
And even dress indecently.

“…But spiders cause me grievous fright!
I have a burned-out ceiling light.
So, if you can and think you might,
Come help me with my chores, tonight.”

©2Dec2017 @DracoTalpus

Life for a soul is
  more than a mere,
Fast, fleeting moment
  spent idly here.
Brilliantly beautiful,
  lightning – so quick,
Then long ever after,
  its rumbles roll thick.

So, when Heaven forever
  calls a soul home,
It flees before ashes,
  stacked stones, or deep loam.
Transcending the realms
  of grief, pain, and time,
From this mortal coil,
  it gently unwinds.

Arriving unbroken,
  undying, anew,
Abiding eternally,
  healthy, and true,
The spirit wields deftly
  a colossal glass
So slowly sand slips through:
  eternities pass.

©30Jul2016 @DracoTalpus
for the Edwards family; #inspired by Madigan

Cold: my toes wiggle.
Rainfall: happy redwoods weep.
Fog encroaches yet.

There: now you are here,
but you are warmer inside –
kindled by haiku.   :)

©14Dec2010 @DracoTalpus
for Judith Giganti, who has
never been to California, who
has a huge heart, and who is
otherwise a tiny woman with
a contrary name.  ;)

Liquid sapphire droplets stare
Beneath her tawny cascades, where
Soft waterfalls on shoulders bare,
How wet he wishes he were: there.

©28Dec2015 @DracoTalpus
for &  #Inspired by @shell2the_bee

What rumble grumbles thundering
     beneath another boiling sky,
Which warns me, scorns me,
     distant thorns flee: flashing light from clouds, and I…

Am harkening – darkening towers,
     ivory-cast and sunlit spires lie!
Still distant, though these
     trees are bending, rending, raising arms up high.

Green fingers flailing, leaves travailing,
     one warm-gust, and the blues go grey;

Then silence…
And the wind dies:

Calm

I can feel you coming.

I can taste your spray.

There’s nothing better
     than a thunderstorm;
I love them, and especially
     the way your tempest touches,
And the way your thunder talks to me.


©14Sep10 @DracoTalpus

Dear Congressman Tim Ryan,

Allow me to turn your attention to a gift from your American people: those who elected you and those to whom you remain accountable. We call it the Constitution of the United States of America. In part, it reads, "insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves," so I ask you:

Which burdens you most,
When the rain turns to flood?
The mud of the Med,
Or our Forefathers' blood?

While these refugees stream
Toward our French-fashioned Girl,
Where a poet's bronze stanza
Adorns a stairwell,

I hear you implore us
"Yea - Take them all in,
For to turn them aside:
Humanitarian sin!"

So let me remind you:
Our tax is your pay,
There's a gate at our border,
And you stand in the way!

Our Constitution's each word
Writ to keep us secure.
Will you stand in betrayal,
Or keep your oath - pure?

For as long as we pay you
To make U.S. law,
No matter the pull
Of political awe,
NEVER place such words scrawled
On a cyprium plaque
Above my Constitution,
Or we'll take your job back!

@DracoTalpus
19Nov15
For Kevin and Ohio Rep. (D) Congressman Tim Ryan, who uses a French statue to claim American liberty is a #SyrianRefugee's right - while France keeps her borders locked-down!  :/