Wherefore the Monarch
In orange and black
Will you nevermore
Gently flutter by?

I knew a rhino
Dressed in black
Not coming back
No horn intact

Horror scene
This Holocene
Us? The way of the dodo?
I don’t know

ERROR CODE 6034:
Undeliverable: philosophical differences

ERROR CODE 6035:
Philosophy incompatible

ERROR CODE 6038:
Indiscernible philosophy

ERROR CODE 6070:
Not detected

ERRIR CDE 666
ah funny Hugh much Nih had

DELIVERED

FBI like SCI/FI
X: Scully and Mulder

Sceptic and Mystic
Science informed Intuition

Solves the mysteries
Of scurrilous skulduggeries

Heinous histories
Resolved collaboratively

The space between expectations
And real-world realizations
Pinning hope upon a star

So far

Desire sires hope
Hope molds chance
But then circumstance

Twisted dance

Legislative ping-pong
An absurd, wrong, sing-song
Maintain a sense of self

Them, not you

Be the best you can
Rely on those you love
Have a back door plan

This land is your land,

Too…

Lil' baby peeks
From her towel cowl
Placed to placate
Her hissy scowl.

Spastic cat relaxes,
Spies with her little eyes
Safe within her clothy cave
Believes she's invisibile.

Later, much later,
Lucky emerges, yoga stretches,
Black cat arches back,
Shudders; tail's end softly twitching.

Ready again for tactile affection,
We stroke her silky fur
Feel her subtle purr;
Lil' baby again.

Lonely boat
at low tide
bereft

Lost ribs rise
above gray mud
stark

Muck stuck with
elemental exposure
bleached

Proud vessel now
mussel struck
stuck

There is no comfort zone
As a ****** alone
Traipsing and tripping
Calles and zocalos

Estranged stranger
Taller, whiter, foreign
Trying to fit not blend in
Stuttering sputtering sentences

Finding right words
Taxing not relaxing
But rewards every day as
Friends show us the way

Prepare the feast
Bread stuff has to bubble
Or you’ve got trouble

Pumpkin gave its life
Add eggs and allspice
And enough butter for crust

Free range young turkey
Neck and giblets included
Need ‘em for groovy gravy

Boil stock down
Rosemary and sage
Just in thyme

Cooking together
Three days on
Now that‘s thanks giving

These days I cry every day
Extraordinary light in the kitchen
A certain chord progression
The passing of Mary Oliver

Even in loss we gain
Emotional resilience
Even as we surrender
To the beauty of day to day

What condition my condition is in:
We begin at our skin
All we are all all within

(fragile ***** bubbles
membranes refrained
it’s out or it’s in again)

Keep it in
Keep it in

Not fun when it leaks
Mortality brutality  
*******

****** visible
Scars irrational
Spots visible

Sci-fi invasion:
Climbing up the torso
“Look, Spot! Another Spot!”

Near Halloween
He turned thirteen

Buddy boy born,
It’s a good boy yarn:

Came to us as an adolescent
Eager, fun, ever present

Present for the scent
Of every teaching treat

Sit, stay, come, heel…
(The last one meant walk, walk WALK!

Down to the park!
Smelling all my neighbors!)

But Halloween was hard
Doorbells, voices, lights,

Mobs of noisy people
Invading his protected spaces

Lunging! Barking!
Instinct loosed!

He learned, through the kids,
The “trick or treat”

Then he learned to love it all!
Licking costumed faces

Sniffing ***** bags
For obedience treats

It used to be hard with every doorbell dash
To control big golden yellow buddy boy

As we, and he, got older
(he quicker, the 7 to 1 brief flicker)

We relaxed our grip on him
As he mingled with wizards and goblins

When the next mob of kids arrive
Your SpongeBobs, your Vader’s, your Ghostie-ghouly space invaders

No tricks, a real treat: a new generation meets
Mellow yellow buddy boy saying, “Hi"

I think about my Dog
All the time
The omnipotent one;
Maker of Chihuahuas and Bernards;
Distiller of EVERY smell we LOVE to smell
HE who NEVER NEEDS to eat grass.

Oh, Boy, Good Boy,
Why, oh why, don’t we have thumbs?
We can’t open the ***…frigging doors
To answer the NEED of nature!
We can’t even open any food container
Or answer the phone when they are away.

Don’t get me wrong—
I like being on all fours, Dog, stability!
I like my nose knowing and showing!
I LOVE doing it *******:
On a manmonk leg, on the couch, with a bi—
(Sorry, the manmonks think I shouldn’t say that word)

Speaking of manmonks,
Could you help them understand us better?
Don’t they know they STINK?
They take me out to play, yeah!
Then, I bring the stick back not once, but twice, thrice…
That’s just not nice.

And why can’t I EAT all day?

That thing around my neck itches.
And the metal thingies are crazy jangly; but
Thank you, Dog for allowing me to scratch scratch scratch scratch scratch so well.
And lick where I like to lick.
And lick where I like to lick.
And lick where I like to lick.

Oh Dog, dear Dog,
Please hear my lamentations.
Grant me my thumbs!
Let me open the door!
Remove the collar!
And finally use the holy

Can Opener!

I have a hundred words
to decide what to do.

If I ask and she accepts,
well then, that’s a complicated novel
and game over.

I don’t know.
If I don’t ask,
it will always just be a poem
of longing and regret;
and who wants that?

I could equivocate, stall,
pad out the proposal
with flowery propositions
and run-on sentences
with irrelevant red herrings
and perhaps a false dilemma or two
but in the end
how could that eventuate
a more acceptable outcome?

Sigh.

Buck up, man.
It’s only words.
Do it; do it now:
“Paula, will you…?”

I’m going to have some fun
With my rat-a-tat word gun
Words profane and words as pun

“A well regulated militia....”
Means hellya! we can police ya
And send you another noticia:

We CAN regulate your sorry ***
(Sorry, you think that crass?)
And negate forever your NRA impasse

Hey, you, you NRA ringers
I care **** about prying “cold dead fingers”
60 dead, 500 ******—that's what lingers

Legislators, grow a pair
Make good laws: strong and fair
End this mass-death love affair

Beneath the fabric
Covering her eyes
Tears puddle and flow

Arms tired, spirit disgraced
The scales list dangerously
Sword lies discarded

Her constitution weak
Battered by righteous fools
This is how justice dies

An ambulance mourns and wails
Someone down in this town

Church bells chime at all times
Weddings, masses, memorials

“BRRROUOOGH! GAS! OAXACA!”
On every street on every morning

Smaller, stiller sounds; listen:
Cooing doves in jacarandas

Silent dogs on rounds;
Stealthy, not needing us

Squeals, peals of children
Skating, biking in the park

Schnack-fwack brush
Of shoeshiners

Twhick—shwick—thwick
Of fastidious street sweepers

Traffic, thrumming always
The humming of Oaxaca

The line between here and there
Grows thin once a year and death
Smells of copal and marigolds
Those who remember sit twixt
This world and the next to commune
With madres y padres y abuelos y tias
Bathed in candle light; this afterlife
Remembering is festive, not somber
As October moves into November
With those living and past together

To know you are a sinner
Is to be a winner

More important than wrong
Is the penitent song

Not heavenly forgiveness
but to be witness

To admission to the
Loved one wronged

Absolution?

Totally up to them

Doesn’t come easy
I have jars on the shelf
Filled with
Jarring metaphors
Sparring rhymes;
Poems aborted

Dead ends.
Some just clumsy fumblings
Some un-clementine Frankensteins
Some too painful to finish
Some too personal to post

But for me, a life-line.

The rising rock
A strutting ****
Seeking Venus
Turns to *****

Rocks to stone
Stones to pebbles
Pebbles to sand
We wash away

time slows,
shows, goes

feel it come—
then its gone

anticipate to
participate…

(endeavor to
remember)

It lands with a thud
No hello, no “can I come in?”

Depression

Come on! Buck up man!
Get that off your back!

That’s your impression?

Change the channel?

Put on a fresh shirt and smile?

It doesn’t work that way
Not for some while

Sensing them
From only here

Honest empathy;
But knowing, no.

Raise the sails
Cross the gulf

Yellow buddy Gunther meets
Ginger Fred the red

Nose touch and sniff
Yep. You. ‘K.

(He eschews those black cats—
Snubs uncomfortable loves)

But boys will be boys
Meeting nose to nose.

We just feed them.

Regrets? I’ve had a few
I’ve done a lot; what's more to do?

I haven’t seen the northern lights
Or seen earth from sub-orbital flight

I never saw a show at the Apollo
Can you dig it? Do you follow?

I never asked a boy to me kiss
Nor ate the cheeks of a blowfish

I haven’t climbed Kilimanjaro
(But I could still do that tomorrow)

But then again…

I threw myself from an aero plane
So, I don’t need to do that again

I zip-lined a mile chasm in Costa Rica
And hot-ballooned over Tlacochahuaya

I’ve been a nudist in Albuquerque
Yes, those that know, I am that quirky

Crossed crevasses to the South Pole
And flung myself into the future solo

Regrets? I’ve had a few
But far, far more adventures, too

Time travel
Wears a body down
All that back and forth
Up and down some Jefferies tubes
Forgetting what’s been remembered

No cousin conundrums…
Thank goddess!
But I’ve seen me—
Gleefully pulling kitties tails
Splashing in a kiddie pool

The past is easy travel
The future most hard
The worst is what we don’t know
But we let it happen:
Super moons, king tides

It's nothing really,
No, really it's nothing.
Don't worry about it —
Didn't happen.

It's not a problem;
(Or, as I see it, pablum.
Yet, I seethe at your slight
You myopic fat pigeon-******!)

(Did I say that out loud or just think it?!)
No, no; it's fine.
Tuesday? Sure.
Yeah, me too!

Tommy Tumescent
Made a claim, man
By the left hand
That’s right’s been
Unrighteous with you
Making advances
Asking for finger dances for
Tactical enhancements to
Grow slow, Joe;
Remove the hoodie
Show the woodie
Stick your neck out
Turkey ****
Someone loves you
Enjoy

FAKE NEWS is not new;
Fantabulism populism:

SHRIMP, BOY!
Mind the clause!

BEARDED PERSON!
Absolutely Ordinary!

ZIPPY THE PINHEAD:
Are we having fun yet?!

“It’s on,” she said,
as she slid her hands
into her stirrups.

I countered with a hearty “Harf!”
and jumped aboard my steeley steed.
The klaxon clanged
and we were off.

I rounded the first turn inside,
scraping the turnstile.
She laughed heartily as
she glided swiftly by.
Suddenly, smoke and
screeching terrors!

Aluaurms sounded
Medicaloes swooped
swarming with pinging lights strobing
.
My steed whinnzied and shuddered
I swooped around and sloped down.
As I puttered to a stop,
she emerged from the twisted,

Ok’d.

That day, no one shivel lost,
but she had won!

It was a fun day
On the Bay of Fundy
When Chris, Jane, Mateo and Juan
Happened to look leftward

New Brunswick looked old as
The ocean shimmered singularly
Porpoises poised ominously and
The captain seemed bereft

"4° starboard, Coxswain!” he bellowed
Before the worst occurred
Juan saw it just before Jane
As the ship ****** accordingly

Beside, the thing from nowhere
The beast that could not be
Krakened enormously
Splitting sea and sky

Mateo was the first to plead,
“Why, oh why, here and just now?”
He beseeched sea, beast, and sky
“Why not?” Crackled the Kracken

The sum of fun on bay of Fundy
Ended that day in mid July
The  flying fish remember
All those who did not die

Mind the gap
Tween want and need

Go somewhere else
Where you are alien

Taste the world
Outside your zone

Practice the language
The necessary one

Kindness to strangers
Cross the boundaries

Find the map
That turns from greed

Line three thrummed;
bisectional translateral
segments echoed sympathetically.

Eyes one through nine
snapped open
as all legs were put on high alert.

I proceeded down lines
two through five cautiously
to see what was disrupting.

What was I fractually perceiving??
Food, yes; but what—
The fly (but what? half a fly?)

twisted and twirled in my web a
s the homunculus shouted,
and the hairs on my legs tingled in horror,

as I heard, “heeelp meeee!”

Once, a
Pangolin
Met a
Penguin
North or
South of
The Equator
You’re bird?
You’re mammal?
You’re funny!
You make me smile!
One waddled away
One rolled away
North or
South of
The Equator

THE END

Manage your own estate
No one else really cares

We work sometimes together
Or better yet: laugh together

We even feign interest
We might even “like!"

Then home to solo corners
Our own personal concerns

The importance of self-love:
Definitely not underrated

The drone’s angle
Cauliflower green

Obligatory overhead
Forest scene seen

Filming automated
Droids watching as

Camera slides, smoothly
Overhead drama meme

Copter tracking
Story told between

Extraño mi perro
Extraño mi padre
Extraño mi madre

I don’t miss my friends
I long for them, puedo
Keep them close

“To miss” is a powerful verb
Missing a lovely mystery
Being missed is wistful

Roses are Rosaceae near 700 angstroms
Violets are Violaceae around 480 angstroms
Sugar is C12H22O11
(It’s sweet)
And so are you

Number two gets knocked around
Snockered and knockered by
Plans backfired.

But Orville knows deep in his heart
(that is red red red as his nose)
That number two is still good, too.

One, golden, pure as driven snow cones
Head high held in the ozones
Knows not what just misfired.

Number three, trickster, conspired:
Pitting one against two.
What transpires inspired is clown!

My bones ache
My head seeks

The body slumps as
Spirit breathes and

Unhindered soars
And scores

When is this?
Where is this?
Where am I?

Awoke in dark
Wall dimly glows
The rest shadows

Here now?
Then when?
Where to go?

Stepped from sleep
All unfamiliar
Observe; think!

Gauze falls
Fog clears—
Here. In my chair.

There is a middle place
Between OK and sad
Between fact and fiction

There is a middle place
Between you and me
And us and them

There is a middle place
Between what we know
And what we want

There is a middle place
Between "FAKE NEWS!”
And actual truth

Twixt there and then
Visualize better zen
Grow from the middle

Punchline?
Hiccups!
Ah-eht!
In the middle of a breath

Makes it hard to do
A radio show
Or the fi-INL-nal lectures
Fine with two days time?

Please?

I’ve been to where
Beyond somewhat

Floating through it all
Soaring everywhere

Beings familiar seen
The inscrutable not

Take the nectar
As I flutter by

What way
We can’t say

Imagery
Left to be

Poetry not
On the clock

Turn a phrase
To mayonnaise.

Evidence is everything.

You can think something else is so;
You can hope something else is so;
You can believe something
Someone else has said is true.

There is no fake news
There are only fake facts.
Your take on the facts
Introduces subjectivity:

"Danger, Will Robinson, danger!"

Subjectivity rocks the boat
Distorts the daily;
Removes truths and
Introduces indecision.

Subjectivity *****
Fax me the facts.
Just the facts, ma'am,
Just the facts.

Old dog,
wait for us—
Surely, you can do that?
Don't go while we are away

Stay!

The kitties need you.
The homestead needs you.
We need you.
We love you, buddy boy.

Old dogs teach us so much:
Loyalty, love, friendship.

Impermanence.

Buddy boy, please
Be here when we come home…

Okay?

BAM!
The cudgel descends

RIP!
The bandage off

****!
Old wounds can fester

POW!
Kicked while down

WOW!
Past is present again

GET UP
Brush it off
Mend your wall
Stand tall and
Walk away

My story is unexceptional
But for a few exceptions

A story uneventful
Except when remarkable

There are characters dull
And characters full

It’s a whirlygig existence
More than a water slide ride

Take note as it happens
No one else keeps score