7/31

a sojourn
on bare talus
(not far off the trail)
we fail to note
the falling cloud cap
trapping us
in gray white mist

on barren rock
cairn blazes useless--
invisible from above

a reconnoiter fails
to find the trail--
we could whistle & shout--
instead choose to wait it out--
preferring silence to the loud
betrayal of this space-- to be
displaced is small discomfort
to one who acclimates
to waiting
lost in clouds

7/30

on shore
flow--
ghosty fog
wafts
salt water made
morning mist

cedars-firs-hemlocks
reduced to suggestions
& silhouettes

as soft
molecular memories of
San Francisco
Spray Park
& North Pacific strands--
wisp lightly
my face

7/29

out walking
the imagination

(that that's still
functional after
extended subjugation
to a monetized
corporate zeitgeist)

aesthetically pleasing
locales are nice--
a coastal track,
an Olmsted park--
but track home
ticky tack
can suffice--
the real work
is inside:

the bubbling battles
of ego & id--
freeing hid-
en connexions--
neologistic dictions--
the algebra of rhymes--
& buried fictions--
metaphorical reflections
in mirrored time

live to amuse a muse
& ye may find yourself gifted
with something you can use
once the lid is lifted

7/29

we are told
the saurian giants
of the cretaceous
were destroyed
by an asteroid
impacting the earth
at hundreds of thousands
of kilometers per hour--

with power enough
to heat the air before it
to temps exceeding
the surface of the sun

--launching a
shock wave @ velocities
approaching the speed of light

& a roiling cloud of darkness
--silent--
faster than sound--
engulfing the horizon
--annihilating on impact

followed by
--hurricanes of burning stone
--a twilight darkness covering the planet
--months? years?
of sunless days
-- a millennia
of climatic instability

asteroid strikes--
say astronomers--
are not predictable--
unlikely to be noted by
scope or radar--

unseen
before atmospheric contact
ignites a fireball
(a second or so before impact)

otherwise--
complete surprise

7/27

methinks my humors
may be misaligned

too much black
bile while
cold & dry
of spleen
(I've seen
this correlates as
SJ on the MBTI)
o my!

do I need a bleeding?
should I reach for a leech?
maybe Rudy's harbors
a barber (no doubt
nattily tatted
& profusely pierced)
who is deft with
blade and bowl
& may make whole
my elan vital

I want
to cook with phlogiston--
move through
luminiferous ether--
embrace all things
discredited & old

& spin some baser matters
into gold

7/26

one can hope
irritation
may some day
produce a pearl

that nacreous
iridescence might
come of perturbation--

that mantled
conchiolin circumstance
could convert
grit to gem

7/25
In the event a Beer Summit with
Shirley Sherrod, Van Jones &
the President...

...one could ask,
Sir, do you
remember principles?

& that
it's alright to fight
when you are right

see
when the accused
is so ill-used as to be
hurled from the sled
for what was said
(or not said)...

& when,
at hint of attack--
he/she
is sacrificed to the vulpine pack

it really doesn't slake
their bloodthirst
does it?

such profiles in pusillanimity
only feed the enemy

better to grow a spine
while there is still time