Shakespearean Wordplay

Analogy resembles 

 

A world bespoken, 

Made-to-order, incomparable 

To compare, say incarnadine, 

 

Lest we should flesh out 

Those bloody incongruous 

Seas of filth abiding us there. 

 

 

 

 

 

Haiku: American Gothic Success Story

Worked hard—making it 

Hard to hear the sound of scythes 

Hissing near his ear.

 

 

 

Unfinished Business

Left to my own 

Faulty devices, I find 

 

What I no longer have 

Any need of keeps 

 

Lagging behind, reminding 

Me of what it is 

 

I am missing— 

A friend in need. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Archilochos And The Nymph Neobulé

Some Parian nonentity was strutting 

In the agora today with my ravishing 

Neobulé—I had to leave her unquenched, 

Still on fire down by a bush 

Near a brook and ran off 

Babbling when the struggle 

Got hot and way out of hand— 

Somehow, saving my shaft seemed 

More precious, I mean where 

Could I find another 

One equally cool, 

Whiplike and long? 

 

 

 

Haiku: Condolences Shallow/Grief Deep

To a better place 

Gone—though deep down grievers know 

How hollow that sounds.

 

 

First Things First

—for Eleni, always 

 

The last thing you wish 

To see before falling 

 

Asleep is the fluttering 

Of her eyelids first 

 

Thing in the morning. 

 

 

 

 

 

Hardly Bellwether

Meretricious 

As a keystone 

Ring scraped 

Off the bottom 

 

Of a dry stone 

Wishing well 

No longer sounding

Whistle clean.