Mendicants Toeing the Capitalist Line

Don’t breathe a word— 
You can’t see it but that 
Rucksack on your back 
Has just enough 
To carry you through 
Another day, 
But no need to worry— 
That other beggar 
With a rucksack 
Just like yours 
Walking before you 
Will never give you away. 

Phenomenologically Speaking

In the dim 
Cramped light of the old 
Folks’ home there was 

Still enough room 
For the shadows 
To come alive. 

Tsunami Crisis Management, Hellas 2015 A.D.

What do we Hellenes do when a crisis is over?
We go back to a life with more crises,
One life with one crisis after another,
But we despair not!

Millenniums basking
On the sun-drenched shores
Of the Mediterranean have taught us how
To perform wonders as long as we persevere

In sitting back in our beach chairs,
All the while making like a wave.

Why Little Children--Like Trees--Are Afraid of Adults with Chain Saws

under the old 

growth is evermore virgin 

growth growing up— 


it’s telling 


the world the last thing 

we must do on this earth is 

hurry up. 

Twilight in Meligalas

There’s a promise 

Of rain in the stiff northwesterly 
Breeze blowing in from the gulf 
Of Kyparissia, thirty kilometers away, 

And the parched trees are nodding 
In unison yes, yes, yes, 
It’s been a good day; 

I’ve spent more than half 
Of my life planted here— 
What more can I say? 

Faux Deus Ex Machina

On the brink— 
Whatever to do? 
So tantalizing 

A thought came to him 
As he was about to jump 
To a forgone conclusion 

Out of the blue. 

None the Smarter at 71

Time was I thought I could think 
My way through life 
Using clever arguments, 

 
That it would be easy to imagine
A world where being 
Smart made you nobody’s fool—

 
Hard to believe now, 
How I ended up forgetting 
Only life makes life’s rules.