In the Long Run

It makes no difference where 
You were going when you were 
Turning left or right 
Or going straight ahead— 

Something tells me 
That was where 
You were going when 
You had no choice but to go 

Short of stopping dead in your tracks, 
Which makes all the difference, 
Should one wish to know. 

Aeolian

of fig leaves under 
limbs swept bare— 

a rotting 

bed the fickle 
wind left 

there. 

Clockwork Universe

He’d sit before the expansive 
Bay window and take in 
The sun rising and setting 
Without fathoming why 

It never failed to move him 
While the sea—in an unceasing 
Undulating pendulum rhythm— 
Rose and fell, as if breathing. 

Alms

“I have come to debase the coinage.” 
—Diogenes of Sinope 


Nobody 

At the crossroad, you know the score— 
What’s about to happen has happened before 

So many times nobody gives 
A plugged nickel anymore. 

To a Mind Long Gone

—for Duncan Jones and Tom Clark, two who appreciate 
the sound different drummers make. 


Be not mistaken— 
It’s not the song 
That’s gone wrong; 

It’s the gong going 
Off in your head 
That’s right on. 

On the Dark Side

Saw the whole lunatic 

Moon in half, 
Wondering where 

The other half fell. 

Getting a Charge over Williams' "The Young Housewife"

--for Nin Andrews

Forgive me, Doc this foolish 
Old wordmonger I can’t 

Help myself as I stand 
Drooling over this offering fully 

Aroused and--do you mind?--
Ogling it. 

Cryptic Relativity

There’s a where 
We all come from 
And there’s a where

 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

We all go—here’s where 
We all are, never aware 
We never were. 

Voodoo

Do I have to spell it out for you? 
It so happened 

The last quack who ravished me 
Over a dish of Peking duck 
At the China Clipper 

I turned into a witch, 
Doctor Tu. 

Out the Window

All these derelicts 

Abandoned, one 
Wonders where 

The room went 
Along with the view.