THREE HAIKU

MY FIRST

I reached for the ring

from our small apartment bed

and proposed to you

~

BUCEPHALUS

bass from my black car

stoned on the road I drove you

through the town street maze

~

MOTHER

I hung up on you

your small, far away phone voice

echoes and echoes

~

PRICE TAG – FREE VERSE

Above the turquoise swimming pool

breaking sunlight beneath

I hold my breath

and once underwater

flashes of a shopping mall

May D&F department store

hiding in the clothing rack

my mother takes me into

the changing room

I lay on the floor

look up at the woman

changing next to us

I can see

up her skirt

the price tag

~

YOU ALREADY MET HER – FREE VERSE

She’ll hustle hard as you

She’ll hustle just as hard as you

Lady samurai will not only make money

She’ll shoot hoops like her daddy taught her to

Joy will sing from her notebook

Kissing moist and tongue locked wet

She shivers when you suck her full lower lip

Now closing in on a fat screaming jet

Filled to capacity with cream

She sits across the airliner aisle

Tiny gold bracelets wrap her wrist

And you’ve seen them before

Because this was your dream

And just as she asks you what you do

She’ll remember this dream too

And know this was for you

And know this was only and all just for you

~

SUNDAY NIGHT VICE, 1986 – BLANK VERSE

To his grandma’s house when she was alive

Later Jan Hammer stereophonic

Eight-year-old head resting on chin, eyes wide

Loyal partners, vintage white Ferrari

Low-slung shoulder holster pistol chest hair

Poolside diamond heist Cuban drug lord

Miami prostitute thrown overboard

Naive black youngster killed wearing a wire

Turquoise ocean and magenta sunset

Television cop show changes boy’s life

~

TOO FAST YOUTH – SONNET

Out the window, I too see the clouds

See the amber light to eternity

The sight is so bright, so much like a shroud

Never would I think it was meant for me

Too fast youth, golden seasons left behind

All of those memories lost in the blaze

In those landscapes painted upon God’s mind

Gave up searching for your face in the haze

Flame to be relit, the heart is no liar

My dumb clumsy traipsing gait cobbled right

I tried rescuing reason from the fire

My bed was cold and I clicked out the light

But far away I could still hear your voice

Soft, heaven sent, and for that I rejoice

~

THE LAST HOUSEWIFE – SONNET

My dream to tie with you my lonely rope,

Has turned to hell, into a life I hate

I fell for you, my love, we did elope

Now stuck with you too long and much too late

Forgive me, but to read this will be tough:

You are a hippopotamus, my queen

To share the labor would have been enough

To work all day just like some hard machine

As you lay languid fore your flick’ring screen

You say you may bring child along the line

A winning husband all you thought you need

You’re wrong to think we need more of your kind

You once did thrill me with your languid life

But here we split, my late and lazy wife

~

AFTER WE TWO PARTED – FREE VERSE

Divorced those years ago.

Never expected to talk to you again.

Not until last week, editing old video footage

Of our trip to Baja.

The magenta bougainvillea

Nostalgia’s wicked film burn,

Dialed your number, one digit different from mine.

No one picked up.

Next morning, you called back.

We talked my entire drive to work.

You moved to Iowa with your new husband,

Organic farmer.

But you were bored,

Alone in a town of one thousand

No restaurants and you cooking every night

I heard your baby talk in the background

And I felt for you,

That child could have been mine.

I hung up before leaving to teach third grade.

I’ll always have the Baja video,

You, happy, hiding behind the mosquito netting

I’ll have the scars, too.

But I’ll never have you.

No, I know, I will never have you.

~

SHE LET HIM BE  – VILLANELLE

Like a single tear in the endless sea

His feral laziness legendary

He never lift a paw, she let him be

Lion underneath the acacia tree

Only let the females prowl so closely

Like a single tear in the endless sea

One afternoon, the pride moved on, you see

That raving bitch of age caught up to he

He never lift a paw, she let him be

Desperate solitude, he was so lonely

His release was to find identity

Like a single tear in the endless sea

She showed up one day unexpectedly

A calico of varied pedigree

He never lift a paw, she let him be

She was afraid, she thought he just might leave

He thought she would flee like everybody

Like a single tear in the endless sea

He never lift a paw, she let him be

~