Senryu

Endless summer heat
In January when cars won’t start
I’ll dream of summer.

One by one
Rose petals fall like old dreams
Heartache is your name.

Whirling dust
On summer empty lane
Melancholy.

The orchard

It was a beautiful apple tree with low hanging fruit
shaped by a gardener whose parents had been Jehovah witnesses
(His parents didn´t believe in Christmas)
made to look like a decorated Christmas tree as seen on postcards.
On the tree, a twig stuck out that had no apples appeared dead
as I reached up to pick an apple the twig was a snake and said:
“Don´t steal the fruit that belongs to the old people’s home.”
Have you never heard of Paradise when the snake tempted Eve?
“Yes, I know I was there, but have changed gone woke now speak
nicely, before we strike with a drone, the twig said”
I picked an apple anyway; it began raining, and I had no umbrella
I got soaking wet, and the next day I had a nasty cold.

The aftermath

If Russia invade Ukraine
The invaded country will get no help
From the USA who knows about “my back yard.”
NATO but it has no army to speak of
Only generals we can call desk riders.
The big nation will see invasion as a free for all
The USA will attack and occupy Venezuela
And Cuba as a pretext to stop the Russians
Possible bases.
And we are back to a cold war again.

The song contests

I came across an apple tree it looked like
a child’s idea of this type of tree, big red
apples and a blue sky; when I realized I do not like
big red apples have farinaceous and taste
like they were dreaming of becoming potatoes
and not picked at by bird.
I joined my wife she was watching the final
Of a song contest, the finalist were two women.
One was buxom and belted out a song with full voice
the other one sang sweetly like opening the window
and letting a songbird and sunlight in.
The ample woman won, but we loved the sweet one.

A morning moment

The owner of a black cat
Sits on a chair by the open door, on the shady side of the road
Reading yesterday’s paper.
The moggy opens its eyes they are like a creamy zabaglione
When I walk past.
The feline sees me then closes its eyes again.
The owner of the cat gets up with tail *****
Marches into the house
The door closes
The man starts up his scooter drive off in a haze of sunlight.

Unsentimental

Overcast this Saturday the clouds are light grey
letting in light on the dark water.
Only one ship anchored in a bay this morning
It is high in the water, waiting for a birth to fill
the cargo holds with stuff from one port to another.
The ship has a black funnel with two red rings
she is elderly and needs a lick of paint, probably
from my time in the merchant navy.
I was not a good sailor, was impatient to reach a port
any port would do, as long as I got ashore
away from the floating gossiping village, freedom!
Settled in my old age, I see the futility of sea life.

Memorials

They have gone, not a trace left, but memories
leaves are getting yellow. No denying fall is here
Me, a sole survivor, standing on a plateau
of nothingness where the dust of years blows.
It was those years who supported you here,
I shall not climb the outside pf the Eifel tower
honours the army of welders; forgotten now
Eifel tower lives, but the man lost his glory crown
when trying to build the Panama Canal.
This long way so, many doors to open and close
he sees shadows the welders are here
perhaps Eifel also lurks behind a locked door.