Going down a rabbit's hollow
Past a stinking burning bush
Such a sour pill to swallow
Moral living lacks a push

Poison's going to **** us all
Not our body – just our mind
Maintain your brain in alcohol
Alas your Savior now is blind

Follow, fail and fall or finish
Hold your favour stay your path
If you sink, your soul diminish
Your own spirit finds your wrath

Failing at communication
Builds up your immunity
Holding faith to show causation
Spouting with impunity
                            rc

When the night has fallen fast
Trim your dream-ship, scale the mast
Queries answered, questions asked
Trust the magic will outlast
                                rc

Drown your garbage in the sea
Hideous obscenity
Burn your plastic effigy
Give me some serenity
                                 rc

They say that each new snowflake
Is unique in some respect
You have to use a microscope
To see that little fleck
To say this as a metaphor
May cause some introspect
I'd like to know if this is true
But who has time to check
                            rc

As you get close to “the day”
Your tensions are holding at bay
But some might allege
That you're right on the edge
You're just one figgy pudding away
                                       rc

In the upper echelon
Conversations do drag on
From the ev'ning til the dawn
Don't await as I'll be gone
                           rc

Flying like a bumblebee
absent from reality
victim to this malady
giving all to some degree
                      rc

Spark
fleeting
little shock
makes you feel so
light
                                           rc

The brook-side meadow's quiet, shadows gone
Overwhelming green struck in private hues
The stream bank channels and tree roots confuse
The light is magic dancing after dawn
There in the tangle hides the leprechaun
There in the tangle his mischief is planned
Scratching his bearded chin, pipe in his hand
Prides in his trickery, crusty old con
Harassed and hunted by unthoughtful souls
Not any wonder he's social inept
He is pursued for the gold he controls
But they do not know it's not physically kept
Pursuit of the rainbow earth not apart
The leprechaun's gold is found in your heart
                                                      rc

When brothers and sisters display their ambition,
Disquiet begins with an overlapped mission.
Not likely are they to conceive coalition,
As free competition's the price of admission.

With hindsight perspective, the point of ignition,
Was broken commitment and lies of omission;
That turbulent fireball, conscious volition,
Set flame to the nexus of love and tradition.

The holidays come with attached contradiction,
And multitudes gather like rats in a kitchen.
Their greetings exchanged in colloquial diction;
The better to manage their vasoconstriction.

Relations, though sweetened, still lack in nutrition,
Society weakened, you'll rise through attrition.
                                                       rc

So here you are, another year gone
I won't ask you what the plan is
I remember you telling me years ago
"I don't even buy green bananas"

It seems like your strategy (such as it is)
Has ended up serving you well
You've been so many places, done so many things
And have so many stories to tell

If the idea here is avoid disappointment
The plan falls a little bit short
No life is perfect, things happen to us
(Don't mean to be such a spoilsport)

You raised kids through the sixties I needn't say more
There's no need I should be specific
We got past all that and we all settled down
But we still have a flair for dramatic

You've done really well, I'm so proud of you Mom
Your the best of what this clan is
You set the example, I think that I too
Won't even buy green bananas

                                    rc

It started with Covid-19
The likes of which we'd never seen.
We thought we'd be good
but we should have touched wood
as it's turned into something obscene.

So then ****** Hornets arrived
(we thought it was something contrived,
excuse me for thinking)
They told us unblinking
From a horror flick this was derived

He was hoping to win the election
and he just couldn't stand the rejection.
His effort to thwart
was to ***** us in court
but he couldn't maintain an *******.
                                               rc

In every population there are fools,
and those who can't accept a fair defeat.
The weaker minded souls become the mules,
incited by repeated lies and tweets.

Psychology en mass is quite the art;
you influence the least incisive first.
(Would anyone call Chicken Little smart?)
Exhorting to the base invokes the worst.

We shouldn't be surprised, yet here we are.
In shock we watched democracy catch fire.
A wound this deep will surely leave a scar,
all caused by one capricious despot's ire.

Can those who would all verity efface,
return from so profound a loss of grace?
                                                  rc

I think about existence
And I look for what holds true.
I feel assured that I exist
But I've questions about you.

The "Row your boat" philosophy
Does nothing for my quest.
If I have dreamed this all along,
Why do I still need rest?

Forget about the tangibles.
Let's give that stuff a pass
And think of love and beauty;
Those things that have no mass.

The mountain seems so beautiful
Against an azure sky.
You might see it as a pile of rocks
Within your pale mind's eye.

Did I invent that beauty just
To fit some need of mine
Or does beauty have an essence
No matter how you might opine?

And what of love? Did it exist
Before it struck your heart?
Well now you know, without it,
Your world would fall apart.
                        rc

It sits alone now
Derelect, long neglected
Empty except the transient shelter
Provided to fox and deer
And swallows cliff and barn
The roof collapsed, the shingles succumbed
To a thousand windstorms
The south side sinking
Drowning in the earth

Yet from it's bones you can see
How it would have appeared
Had a century not unfolded
Timber walls hewn by hand
Corners locked and dovetailed
The craftsman's pride disguised now
Behind the ravages of time

Reflect upon the family
Those pioneers so strong of heart
Who built and grew and loved
And carved a life beyond existence
What hardships felt and conquered
What anguish never overcome
Can we imagine now
From our comfortable perspective
The priorities within that fold
Of time and circumstance?
                                        rc

A dove is just a pigeon
in the politic religion
Cuz pacifism's not a lot of fun
You might not know your pastor is
A fire-fighting arsonist
You know behind his back he holds a gun

Don't fret about his competence
The facts are of no consequence
So long as your agenda is upheld
And celebrate diversities
In ***** universities
There is no need for cultures all to meld

The temperature's not rising
Don't know who you have advising
The winter still feels pretty cold to me
In any case the cause of it
Is farting cows and penguin ****
The rest is just a wild hyperbole

                                       rc

The very term evokes esteem
And images of love and nature
What mere gathering of words
Can adequately form a portraiture

Fierce protection, love defined
Imparting lessons, devoting guidance
Policing conflict, bite your tongue
The inner screams emerg as silence

The push and pull on random tack
Can drive into a crazed distraction
But comes immeasurable strength
Creating reason from abstraction

Respect and reverence don't suffice
As no spoken language could
Describe the spirit we perceive
As is manifest in Motherhood

                                   rc

hateful rhetoric
opinions flow like lava
unmoderated
                        rc

The dairy was sold to his brothers
It's not like he had any druthers
The neighbours opined
"He was ever so kind
He was always thinking of udders"
                                   rc

Where creeps the backdoor maestro,
in your selectively disinterested brain,
lessons issued freely leave more questions,
made grander by solicitude and grace.
What of existence and eternal presence?
Posed like mannequins, your questions are

intoned in tones of childhood melodies.

Designs on your attention,
all claim the moral higher ground.
It seems that the naive attempts
to disambiguate the ancient texts,
serve only to cement a modern bias,
parting not the reeds of lemongrass's fakery,
parsing not the deeds of the felonious among us,
no quiet comprehension in the noise and messy chaos;

intoned in tones of childhood melodies.

Suppose a gift of kindness to yourself.
Embrace the finitude delusion.
Pretend that one day this will terminate;
in absence and in darkness will be peace.
Surrender to your ardent vernal mantra,
to gently row and row and row your boat,

intoned in tones of childhood melodies.
                                                   rc

Northern California, early morning rain
Nestled in the grand sequoia,
Supine and bed-bound calm
Idyllic solitude for an
Avowed pluviophile
The petrichor caress the sense,
Creates a kind euphoria
To banish clinomania.
Arise, await the night and clear
Eyes star-cast, aurora dreaming
Serendipity is life
                                      rc

One summer day I had a dream
Of cloudless skies and clotted cream
With flowing fields of ripened grain
And you were there, bereft of pain
Your soul not ready to redeem.

Within your eyes a distant gleam
Was speaking more than voice beseem
This fleeting contact 'cross the plain
One summer day

A slip of joy has stitched the seam
That split our lives eternal stream.
Would ever sleeping be insane
Not suffer life's unending bane
To hold the mem'ry of this dream
One summer day
                              rc

When this bag is done
I swear to God I will quit
This time I mean it

The senryu spins your head
Clouds swirl in the spoon
Cirrus horsetails in viscous regret
Precious negligence
Your self-loathing giving way to urgency
Calm yourself now
DO NOT dull the point
Irreparable damage already done
Tie and hit
Come on! Come on!
Blood is joy

When this bag is gone
Oh God!
I swear...
This time...

                                     rc

As all of human living
Is the brilliant, blinding flash
Of welder's arc,
One meagre life a single spark
In arching grace
Precise in structure
Art in form
And yet we are compelled to parse
And parse
And parse the parsing
To hours, days and years
To successes and to failure
So.
Much.
Failure.

Most will fall
To concrete floor
To glow and fade and die
And some by chance to quenching pail
To sound a raucous last goodbye
But one may find a life anew
Vicarious in having found
The recklessly discarded
Oily rag
                              rc

The roads in religion are swervy
The nutters are really quite nervy
They say god plays a part
In all life from the start
To me seems a little bit pervy
                               rc

We come ajoined along knife's inside edge
We're taken to temptation
Compelled to dance we're striding sliding
To the serpent's assignations

We swim amid the reeds of deep green seas
We're taken to the shoreline
Where whispered wonders wash our old dreams clean
So to new dreams false enshrine

As sour fruit betrays with flies and stench
We're taken to the knife edge
Battered, beaten broken belying our soul
Left to part along the ledge
                                                    rc

The partly frozen lake
Still quite spry alive
****** and late mallards
Temporarily reside

Shared open water spare
Disorder oft ensues
Waterfowl in panic as
The ****** glide amused

Bare-***** branches bent
By early Autumn winds
Nature's karma paying
For sultry summer sins

Sun days in November
So modestly are doled
Joy is where the shadows form
And winter is forestalled
                               rc

A country, in turmoil, a long time ago
Sent all of its tyrants away.
The citizens suddenly freed from their woe
Were left in a state of dismay.

“Freedom”, the concept, was new to these folk
After all the abuse they'd been through
Oh yes, they were glad to be free of the yoke
But they didn't know quite what to do.

Then somebody said, “We need someone in charge
To make sure the trash is collected.
He needn't be more than a p'liceman at large;
Someone we all feel is respected.”

“But how do we choose” was replied in return
“In a way that is fair to us all?”
If only there could be a way to discern -
The answer was somewhat banal.

“We could all cast a vote for the one we like best -
But just how do we narrow the field?”
“We'll pick one from the east and pick one from the west”
Their destiny there-on was sealed.

Both of the candidates chosen were men
(This was long before folks were enlightened)
And both of the fellows knew how to pretend
And thereby the contest was tightened.

One of the guys felt that he should appeal
For a kinder and gentler state.
So he helped the downtrodden, and greased the loud wheel
In the hope that the folk take the bait.

The other guy saw that the hillbilly caucus
Outnumbered the saint wanna-be's.
His cunning campaign became vastly more raucous
As he worked on their fears and unease.

Now, it's not up to me to reveal who succeeded
As that would be cocky and rash.
Suffice it to say that they got what they needed -
But nobody picked up the trash.
                                                            rc

It's transient aphasia
When the bullets only graze ya
And nobody can save ya
From the fog

And you think that it's a tumour
In a twist of Satan's humour
And you feel that you will lose your
Dialogue

Then the gathering frustration
At the failed interpretation
As nobody in the nation
Feels your pain

I know my head's imperfect
I will need some time to work it
It's just a slight short circuit
In my brain
                                rc

When darkness speaks,
It says, the night is ever long;
But comes the dawn.
When speak the seas,
They say the storm is evermore;
But comes the calm.
                                 rc