Page not found
No longer around

Page has moved
You’re still here?

The past disappears
One page then two

Manuscripts decay
The web dissolves

You can only know
Approaching a
Black hole
That the event horizon
Is compelling

An insidious abyss
The black maw
As you fall
And then, “Catch!”
You hate her smile

No,

You love it

Knight’s Queen to Bishop three
The ignorant king decreed
Knowing not the board nor game

Irritated red, readily arrogant
He lets cawing crows fly
Their screech a presage of war

We need balance and check,
Mate; a jester gesture at least
Righteous pawns invoking Hoyle

There are rules to the game
Denied, defied not checked
End in shame and blame

A graceful pirouette towards death
With each and every waking breath
The ****** dance of being alive

The stank of floral perfumes
As memories expand and fade
Exotic as cinnamon and jade

We create and extinguish realms
Thinking we’re at the helm with
Joyous and dire exultation

Walking up the spiral trail
All below us is known
Above, oblivious bliss

We are old now
When they are gone

We are on our own now
With journeys strange, long

We go our ways now
Whistling solo songs

We be who we are now
Elders—right or wrong

A pride of lions
A parade of elephants and
A shrewdness of apes

A prickle of porcupines
A crash of rhinoceroses with
A chatter of budgerigars

A gaggle of geese
Gleefully honking
Heads held high

A horde of crows
Cackling and cawing
Wings spread wide

A kerfuffle of Flosses
A gatherings of clans
A thankful flocking

Kerfuffle is commotion
A happy hoopla
Movement together

Noisy, gleeful, cantankerous
Laughing, loving, boisterous
Family to the end

Pedro, Brenda, Alejandro
Voces Inmigrantes
Vertas, Yolanda and Richard
Brave radio show guests

Risking all to follow liberty’s call
Tremendous risks taken
For the sake of familia
Far away and years unseen

Get here, work here
Bring them all here
Seeking asylum
In the land of opportunity

My great grandfather did
I bet your grands did too
We did not then nor should we now
Build barriers, gates or walls

Native, immigrant or freed slave
Were here, came here, or forced here
Our wants for family are the same
America is great, let’s be better

Navigating the now how
Leaving but the then when
Not knowing where began

Going to the there then
Hoping to find you, friend
Seeking safer harbor again

I know what’s right and
I know what’s wrong
And ponder the in-between

You can answer yes
You can answer no
Or you can say “I don’t know”

Left turn ahead?
Take the next right?
Or steer straight through?

“For me or against me” is
Always false dichotomy
Be true to both me and you

Ball of scratch and
Survival scruff
That did a ditch dive

Feline finding us

Lil’ Draculina
Eschewing touch
Now seeks and gives love

There she is with her dog
He is old and dying
She is purring hospice

Ensconced tween his paws
Nose that sensed her
Saved her

Friends till the end

“Compass?”
“Check.”
“Matches?”
“Check.”
“Maple syrup?”
“Check.”
“Swiss Army Knife?”
“What do you think?”
It was on.
With shouldered packs we set off.
The acorns were scarce at first
but more plentiful later.
Waters roared from recent rains.
Wildflowers were glorious!
I gathered some violets.
Then shelling, leaching, drying and
grinding the bitter nutmeats.
Fire on, cast iron oiled and
the first cakes were poured.
The judges seemed astonished.
We smiled.
First prize in the second only
backwoods pancake contest.
Pete thought it was the syrup
we made in Vermont.
I knew it was the violets.

We fall who we fall for
Feel for our amour
Evermore.

We came into kemmer
But it got dimmer;
******.

As we both grow older
I need a shoulder
Less colder.

Thank you,
Black Lives Matter

Thank you
#MeToo

Thank you
Justice for Josiah

Sister Fatima

Sojourner Truth

Tina Fey

MLK

LBJ

Pete Seeger

Malcolm X

Thank you all, you
Supersheros and heroes
Of social justice

My white privileged
Pimply *** is better
Due to you

I’ll do what I can
In words and deeds
To thank you

How do you know if (hashtag)
You are an abused man?
Is it *** only with your right hand?
Claiming the mattress cliff on the left?
Falling to sleep without falling off?
The one who promised to be your lover
In your vows, now
Only berates you
Negates you
No touch
Nonsuch
What?

WHAT?

Shell shocked

Trying to be nice, bombed

I saw you feel hurt
I know I was part of that
Not sure of the how of it

You tell me to make the sky orange
I can't make the sky orange
Nothing rhymes with orange

I try to be a good man
I reject the role of bad man
I am the man I am

What you feel is yours
But I colored it
Cause it? No.

WWD at 3:41 am
In the trenches
Here to stay.

The past
Finds its audience
In the future

With rabbit hole logic
Place the eight
straight on its side

Tesser-react to
Come sliding
Back

We are all precancerous
Just some degree away

The red spot on your nose
The dubious polyps removed

The tang of iron on your tongue
The itch that can’t be scratched

The trick to being precancerous
Is to be your most precocious

Live large; be positive; do
All you can in time allotted

Scuba dive; skydive
Learn how to tango

Follow your bliss
Treat this as this

Young man down
In the prime of his life

Young man down
Senseless loss tragic

Young man down
A man with promise
And feeling
And vision

A leader.

What's black and white
And red all over?

Young man down.

Once Draculina
Wild child
Paws sin laws

Then bathroom baby with
AM routine set
Man cub stumbles

Puts her water on
Drip it spigot love
Works for her

Baby proves my theorem of
"Love, love, love…”
As we dance our kitty tango

I asked her to relax
She asked me to deliver
The middle is special.

Rrrrrr-rrrrrr-rrrrrr…

Rrrrrr-rrrrrr-rrrrrr…

We hear her call
Emigrants all

Statue beckons across the sea
"Your unfortunates are safe with me"

Warm welcome turns to ICE
A promise broken thrice

To me, to them, to you
Please, let our people through

It was late. The coffee was past tense with only adrenaline left.
“There!” Bernard whispered.
I lifted my night-visions.
“See it?”
“Yeah, I see it.”
“Easy.” Bernard exhorted.
I replaced the binoculars with the gun. The sight was strong enough to compensate. Moments were painfully long as my finger slowly tensed.
“Pffffift!”
It was done! Target acquired! The Carfentanil did its work and the tons of meat hit with a thud.
We jumped from the Jeep to the specimen. It was breathing.
“Good. This is one species of rhino that won’t go extinct on my watch” I grinned.

Not even hello, though?
When you go, you’re gone?
Close the door behind?

That’s the brand
In until you’re not
Then just mist

Don’t bang at gates
Always forever locked
Regroup, regain, retain

Darling,

Still on the front,
I hold my territory.
No enemy in sight.

Interregnum
Or Interim Peace?
I wait for insight.

Freshmen,
(Her, him and they,
And all other
In-between iterations!)

Welcome to
CSU Northmost!
Furthest on the
Northcoast!

It used to be
Hills, Stairs, Umbrellas
Before corporatization

We had a radio station

No more:
Sacramento weather
CSU Chico news
Welcome to Jefferson!

Local news? No.
Community calendar? Whoa!
"Here’s what’s happening in
Yreka California…”

We hope you enjoy
Your time here
In the Northern Quadrant
Our quad-county area

We used to be HSU
With a KHSU and
A funky community vibrancy.

Welcome to CSU Northmost!

I’m down in the dumps.
Why? I don’t have the mumps.
Sure, life has its bumps,
Even some humps.
I’ve known many chumps,
As well as some grumps;
(One called me a frump!)
Yet—my mind does its jumps;
Something deep, deep in my ****?
A rumble, stumble, grumble;
Oumph! Ugh!
Quick, pass the stomach pump:
It’s, it’s—
I’m passing a…

Yesterday, a poem fluttered by
Fragile clumsy moth
Colorful, felt, smelt,  
It had something to do with
Light, shadows, and
A hint of vanilla
From ponderosa pines

In the breeze
From the trees
In a Mary Oliver forest,
“I thought the earth remembered me
She took me back so tenderly.”

Stillness.
Warmth.
Water.
Eagles.
Paddling.
Friendshi­p.

Sharing food with
Campfire laughter
Loving this life:
Going far away
To come home again

We pass through
Interstitial stuff
"Riding on a
Carousel of time”
Says Joni

I’ll jump on the
Dapple grey
Up and down
Round and round

Painted pony
Brings me round
To the rough
And here I stay

What did she feel
As she clicked her heels
Dorothy over the rainbow?

Simple winner’s elation?
A dubious jubilation
Ennui; sodden sorrow?

Ding, ****, murderess
Dog, scarecrow distress
Walking the yellow narrow

Waking quaking with them
Neighbors, uncles and aunt Em
Fortold with cards Tarot

A heart made of tin?
Working wizard’s sin?
Deep in the marrow?

Good witch switch
Knowing bad from which?
Leaving only sorrow

How could she know
Tracks of lion’s sorrow
After that tomorrow

Life in the dark
Is no walk in the park
The best path forward
Is simply felt

Hold hands as you
Cross the avenue
From what’s sure to
What you thought you knew

Grab a flashlight
Shine towards what’s right
Trip on the cobblestones
As you hobble home

In the dark, the stars shine bright
Take a left at Cassiopeia
Turn right at Orion’s belt
Skip home on a lark, in the dark

Some songs transport me
Sometimes going deep
So deeply I weep

“Sounds of Silence”
"Puff the Magic Dragon”
“Cat’s Cradle”

Yusuf wrote
Father to son:
“It’s not time…”

I made that change
Pilgrim’s progress
Wending Westward

In my ‘67 Mustang fastback
Weaving 7 Cleveland lanes
“I know, I have to go away…”

How far should you go
For what you don’t know?
Tomorrow?
Last year?
Marrakech?

Why should you go
To where you don’t know?
To borrow?
Revere?
Make a wish?

Where should you go
To walk it so slow?
Assuage sorrow?
Persevere?
Make a switch?

What you should know
To become thorough
Is time’s arrow:
Change gear,
Self enrich

“A yam is a yam” said Sam
As I am who I am

And I am what I can, I said
“A good scam!” said Sam

Overcome the span
If maybe we can

Slap it, cap it
Snap it, trap it

Then we began
The save it plan

Bullox, Castor
Is he? Ask her…

Leda leading fight
No swooning swan song.

Puissant grabbing
Power grubbing STAR:

Demagoguery of
Dinky demigods—

Twisted tweets
Nasty not-news

Truth will out
Truth will out

Three decades gone
Legacy now latency
Blink, no longer there

Invest in entropy
A future certainty
Nothing ever lasts

No one needs the past
Nothing to learn there
It’s over; get over it

Molière died in his boots
Backstage after the show
Imaginary validated

Carrie Fisher died on a plane
Coming home from a UK shoot
Schizophrenia chicken salad

Her last scenes, her last words
Her final funny "*******"
A brilliant exit ballad

The sun kissed mountains
Greet me to the north
A beckoning mystery

The double domes
Of Templo Santa Domingo
Christened in golden light

Shine below the
Guelaguetza dome a
Spaceship mushroom

I walk the streets in early morn
Beguiled, bedazzled, in love
With our temporary home

Life is unbelievably beautiful
And remarkably breakable

A rush of joy derailed by
Some news inducing grief

Life seems bipolar because it is;
Crushes of fate between triumphs

What wets our eyes can
Sometimes beget laughter

Choose the latter
You‘ll feel better

Rat-a-tat-tat
Human blood splat
Worshipers now whispers

Christchurch
Pittsburgh
Minneapolis

Students, educators
Learning hate kills
What have we learned?

Parkland, Florida
Sandy Hook, Connecticut
Columbine, Colorado

And many many more
The NRA is complicit
Guns, (GUNS!) **** people

Marginalized and minimalized  
****** wife with knife
Boss with memory loss
With whom I spend my life.

*** vowed
Then disavowed
I fell in hot hot  love
With stone-cold *****

Unicorn grow a horn
Your **** smells of blueberries
She walks away with ice cream
Didn't hear a word I said

M-bree oh! I didn't know!
Eggshell walk; afraid to talk
Husbandry is hard
I am on my own

Home alone

This is my body
I pick at and scratch
To rearrange the strange

It’s an eternal assault
This war between
My skin and me

Keep napkin a
Or tissue near
There will be blood

Pick and pick and pick
Argument against free will
She says “Stop!” Can I?

You see me hide the scars
And think it strange
I’m embarrassed

I own this neurosis
While I can’t stop it
It won’t stop me

Love, love, love
It’s that simple

There is only one ingredient
Do I have to say it?

Love, love, love:
Lil’ Draculina to baby

Ms. Black back from
Outside to in

Fred into
Well, Fred

Buddy boy served it up;
We got “Love, love, love!”

I try to live it:
Goodness not godless

It bears repeating:
Love, love, love.

in a malaise
a general haze
not quite right
these days

the buzz is wrong
a sour note song
but, onward!
shuffle along

show a wan smile
while all the while
walking the maze
feigning strong

Three digits
With tiny circle
Right, and a bit above.

Three digits
Never here before
Not cool, not cool: HOT!

Watch widget
Says it’s only eighty-seven;
How hot in 2097?

Now again, adrenaline
My quest test
Is a go.
Go.

Project‘s launch
Just a hunch–
It’s needed
Now.

Pegs in place
Work begins:
Immigrant stories told;
Truth.

There are more than 17 dimensions
Even more ways to delay the
Here and now

Hike a ride
On Mr. Hawking’s bus
What a great, but brief, trip!

The Further we go go
The less we know know
Roll up for the Magical Mystery Tour!

I fall through time

Crawl through space

Zig-zag slip through years.

Memories roil and bubble;

Photos float and dissolve

Years melt; memories collide

Familiar faces and places

Surface and eddy—

Click, stick, then sway away.

Mom. Sis. Nephew. Friend.

Loved, remembered, cherished.

All fall away.
Past is present
Present passes,
Falls through time.

I love you all.

You have the right to
And/or remain silent but

Speak your truth
softly or LOUDLY but

No, really:
SHOUT YOUR TRUTH!

Breath from your diaphragm
Knowing your is is am

Fresh faces
New futures
Writ large

Opened door
Adulthood beckons
Careers unknown

Friends made
Choices to make
Future shaped

Welcome all to
College smorgasbord!
Choose wisely

The fate of the world
Rests with you
And you and you.

HE: do you want huevos rancheros?

SHE: we don’t have tortillas

HE: no problem; we have tricolored tortilla strips!

SHE: we don’t have salsa

HE: no problem; we have cherry tomatoes. We have onion. Half an avocado

SHE: we actually have fresh cilantro

HE: we have salsa!

SHE: fresh eggs of course

HE: thanks, girls

SHE: beans?

HE: yes! Left over from February; when I turned 60. Thank you, freezer

(Half hour later)

THEM: those huevos: yum!