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Jai Rho Dec 2013
He put the moon in my hand
     long before I knew
          the measure of its weight

          It felt like almost nothing
     as if floating
above the reach
          of my fingers
    

               It had no special features
          to reward my wandering eyes
     as they continued on elsewhere

And there seemed to be no reason
     to keep it in my grasp
          so I soon returned it
               into my father's hand

                
                       But afterward I felt it
                resting in my palm
          growing heavy and then fading
       in phases without sequence
or boundaries of time

Barely perceptible
     like shadows pulling forward
          it guides me still

               Leading me past emptiness
          lifting me past hope
     rising highest in the darkest hours

I see its face again
Today marks the 10th year since my father passed away, so I am reposting a poem that I wrote in his honor.  He was a NASA scientist who analyzed moon rocks from the Apollo missions and, one day when I visited his lab, he literally put the moon in my hand.
Jai Rho Dec 2013
Whenever someone
or scores of someones
get shot

other people scratch their heads
and wonder why

We don't have more
guns, guns, guns, guns,
guns, guns, guns, guns,
guns, guns, guns, guns,
.  .  .
Jai Rho Dec 2013
She was named "Camelia"
when she was born
but we called her "Rose"
because of her thorns

not on her skin
but those within

And still we cherished
her petals even
as they fell

deep soft velvet
in our arms
Jai Rho Dec 2013
To suffer pain
caused by another
is more harm
than should ever be

To heal and find
greater safety
is more difficult
than should ever be

But inflicting pain
in return only
adds to more
than should ever be
Jai Rho Dec 2013
Twenty three
hours of Hell
used to be

worth just one
hour of Heaven

But now

Twenty three
hours of Heaven
don't seem to be

worth even one
hour of Hell
Jai Rho Dec 2013
Hi
My name is Dave

Just like all the other guys
Whose names are Dave

So ask for Dave
And someone will
Get back to you

Might not be me
But he's gonna be

Dave

Because my name is Dave
Just like all the other guys
Whose names are Dave
Jai Rho Dec 2013
We should have learned from Jericho
but we keep building walls
to keep out and hold in
with fleeting form
what we seek
to call our own

And when they come tumbling down
we wonder what we could have done
and what we will do now
that they are what
they have always been
before we build again
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