Common Loons of Chequamegon Bay

there is
comfort
when the loons return
to this superior lake
eerie night yodel
echoes
mournful wails
across the apostles

waking the ghosts
of scattered
shipwrecks
marked by
mooring
buoys

july cold
dream wrapped
in flannel sheets
and quilts
we believe
they mate
for life
as they call
the names
of the lost

American Sentence #23

Sometimes it is not what you say but what you don’t that makes the difference.

Corvus

ask them what bird
they would be–
most will say
eagle
hawk
owl
condor
any bird of prey
something
majestic
magical
but
in the dead
of the night
I would choose
the crow
you will wake
to my call
shattering
the stillness
wondering
if the myths
are true

Wrong Number

holding
a beer stained
matchbook
I dial
your
number
hearing

your call
can not be
completed
as dialed

I hang up
hear
waves
breaking
at the
shore
a sort of
pre-recording
for shells
not yet
collected.

Clouds in my Coffee………..gotta love this girl

A Would Be Knight’s Tale

you have destroyed
relationships
collaborations
to the nth degree
that could’ve
would’ve
should’ve
mattered
most

the balls
you grow
when drunk
allow you to
slay
the dragons
and kill
the princess
all
in the same
tale

while you
remain
the only
character
left
in the story
that
never

ends

Haiku: Bukowski and the 4 Fs

find ‘em fool ‘em fuck
‘em forget ‘em and never
ever say never

Bukowski Could Never Be a Haiku

bukowski
lived his life
under
the blinking moon
of neon whores
with too much rouge
happy hour booze
barstool blackouts
always ready
to drink, screw & fight
then go
another three rounds

a mad man
banging
on the underwood
bukowski
hocked poems
for women
whiskey
& smokes
for a ten dollar exacta
–never bet on a bay

for a slice
of life that after
8 or 9 beers
just might
get better

bukowski
lived his life
the ugliest
drunken
bastard
ever
to get it
right

(this post got me thinking–may have been inspired here)

Haiku: Not Quite Disney

deer grazing roadside
at twilight with spotted fawn
stares into headlights

First the Bad News

in eastern bagdad
a U.S. airstrike
killed
three iraqi boys
looking through trash
for something
to sell

it is global day
in darfur
bodies pile up

250,000

the torch
passed through
the Sudan
a genocide Olympic flame
will burn in China

celebrities will protest
on CNN
and
another year
will pass