whimpering softly

softly the old wolf whimpers as he dreams
vaguely remembering hunting long ago
racing over hillsides, splashing through the streams
running in the rain, plunging into snow

seizing prey in triumph as he hears their screams
never fighting nature, going with the flow

life no longer what it was, nothing left but dreams.

Woodland Lake

the sky above
the trees below
the lake before them all

ignore the cars on roads just out of sight
and all this looks like earth before the fall

with grace the waterbirds arrive as fleets of them deploy to feed
ducks dabble as swans cruise by and geese glide beside every reed

Double Dactyls

Higgledy-piggledy,
palaeontology
studies the ancient life
science has found.

Nothing they find for us
most unsurprisingly,
still lives and breathes, because
it's underground.

* ****** **** ****** *

Higgledy-piggledy,
parasaurolophus
carried a slide trombone
up on his head.

I would invite him to
play on it now for you
but the poor dino is
so very dead.

After hours

After hours,
close the store,
kill the lights,
lock the door.

The walls and floors all come alive
as mice and rats and roaches thrive,
hunting for a midnight snack,
knowing no one's coming back.

Running over shelf and table,
as only tiny feet are able,
sink and counter marked with tracks
as they leap from bakery racks.

In the morning, not a trace
of vermin all around the place.

The sun will also rise

The sun will also rise
If we're not here to see it;
What's precious in our eyes
Is not what makes it be it.

Solipsist introversion
Is sophistry most cruel,
Unnatural perversion
Of nature's Golden Rule:

We must cooperate, and compete,
Take what we need, and share;
And if we take more than we need,
When we need it, it won't be there.

Thanksgiving

A day for giving thanks,
And eating too much food;
America the bountiful,
from origins so rude,
Has grown to be so powerful,
Our children's toys are banks.

But we here will remember this,
As long as time remains,
Our families around us,
And all our rightful gains:
Feel sorry for the other folk,
Who think prosperity is just a joke.

Not for earth-shaking wars
Or satellites the globe around,
Our power's formed for only this:
My daughter's cheerful, loving kiss.

Taps

Limping slowly into winter,
Stumbling in the cold and dark,
As the evening breezes freeze me,
Walking through the park at night;

I wonder how to reach the end
Of the road I walk in pain,
While the world whirls round beside me,
Like a fickle, flighty friend.

Leaning on my sole support,
Clicking slowly as we wander
Far from warmth and cheerful faces,
Cane-tip tapping, tapping on the ground.

Snow Showers

Silver dust swirling in a crystal breeze,
Myriad motes descending from the sky,
Framing streetlights, an ever-changing frieze;
They chill the air, cover the ground, and I
Stand silent in the crisp cold haze, transfixed:
Adult, or child I was, emotions mixed.

Midtown Recital

The synchronized traffic light, as we turn to the right,
Keeps us from running down folks all over town.

As the bus stops to pick up some more,
A shabby old bum stands in the door.
He smells and he yells, and he keeps us from moving.
He's got an idea that he thinks he is proving.

We sit and we listen and soon he steps down;
He mumbles and stumbles, and leaves with a frown.
It's hard to imagine he meant what he said;
He probably wanted some change, to get fed.

He put on quite a show as he stood and recited;
Though his poetry thundered, his performance was slighted.

Pax

Say it isn't so,
That we will never know
About the way to end the strife and rage.

Let's give it one more try
Or else, before we die,
My guess is that our counsel wasn't sage.

Please stop the violins,
Let's hope whirled pease begins;
Easier said than done, I know.

A better way would be
To see charity and mercy
Evinced, instead of blood soaked into snow.

'Alls I know is that its summer and my feet are chilly', he said.

chilly in the summer in the city of new york?
you should know by now you have no right to squawk.
would you rather fry an egg on the sidewalk in the morning?
bow down to the algore! this is just a warning!

keep on making fun of climate change and glowball warming.
see if mother gaia goes on lovingly ignoring
the devastation humans have imposed on planet earth.
destruction of the biosphere is no cause for mirth!

the day will come you'll wish you'd lived a greener life.
the end is near! our doom is clear! observe the growing strife!