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Jai Rho Nov 2015
Contrary to popular belief,
we have found WMDs in Iraq,
whose Tigris and Euphrates rivers
once flowed into the Garden of Eden.

But true to popular belief,
these WMDs were not weapons
of mass destruction, in the usual
meaning of that phrase,

They turned out to be wars
of mutual destruction, fueled
by fear and anger against
the most vulnerable within our reach

It matters not that good
intentions guided bombs
and tanks to destroy the
land and lives of innocents

To a man who buried his
family in the smoking ashes
of his ancestral home, or that
vengeful reprisals have no

Other cause, to a mother who
sheds tears upon her favorite
photo of her dead son, whose
body has come home

But whose blood was spilled
into the Tigris and Euphrates

And it matters not
that treasures spent
in futile efforts to fix
what through unfounded

Belief was broken,
by laying siege to
vanquished tribes
to form a nation

Foreign to their own.
And though livelihoods
and communities have
been drained of hope

And promise at home,
there is no end in sight
for wars still fueled by
fear and anger against

The most vulnerable
within our reach.
Jai Rho Nov 2015
I miss the morning paper
personally delivered
to my front door

or sometimes in
the willows
or hedges wet
with dew
Jai Rho Oct 2015
There is nothing like it
all different
and all the same

a splash in a river
after the pouring rain

the flow from a tap
and bubbly champagne

a drip drip drip leak
and steam from a flame

the pulsing beat
of the blood in your veins

It's there in your eyes
when you laugh with joy
and cry from pain

it's there when you thirst
whether body or soul

The sound of water
all different
and all the same
Jai Rho Jun 2015
We stood
on shadows cast
from the glow
of a sunlit moon

that took flight
above waves breaking fast
upon melting sand
beneath our gripping toes

We rode them like wings
along the path we carved
into the fabric of night's
luminescent beams

and basked in the warm
and turning flow emerging
from yesterday's horizon
as the morning rose
Jai Rho Jun 2015
I passed by a hospital the other day
it had a sign that said "No emergency services"
above bold block letters proclaiming
"URGENT CARE"

I wondered how that could be
how can an emergency not be urgent?
doesn't a life or death situation require
the most urgent care?

And then it occurred to me
that care is always urgent
and if given constantly
there would be

No emergencies
Jai Rho Apr 2015
To nuke, or not to nuke-- is that the question?
Whether 'tis nobler in the end to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fury
Or take up arms against a sea of violence
And by opposing join them. To die, to sleep--
To sleep--when we cast away all hope,
And begin the thousand years
That waste is heir to. 'Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be questioned. To die, to sleep--
To sleep--no more to dream: ay, there's the rub,
For in that sleep of death no dreams may come
And no waking hour shall see the sun,
When we have snuffed this mortal soul.
Jai Rho Mar 2015
Three is a lonely number
it's the odd man out
the third wheel
the unreserved ticket
the strikeout

It's what happens
after two

But three is also a prime number
it's the pinnacle
the apex
the try in
the attempt

It's what happens
before
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