Antitrust

The politicians say they only care
About consumer safety -- no debate
When people must be safe -- we would not dare
Deny that government must regulate.

But why do CEOs feast Congressmen
And ask for regulations to be made?
They capture regulations in their den
Of bureaucrats, so everyone is paid.

And when monopoly is made, it's fine
Until the wrong official is made mad --
And then the antitrust laws make it dine
Upon the fact it was a power fad.

The regulations make monopoly,
While competition is what makes us free.

Symmetry and Equilibrium

The coin is standing on its end
In perfect symmetry --
The little time that it will spend
(Potentiality

In quantum fluctuations, air
That's blowing from a vent,
The tiniest vibration) where
There is a small percent

Chance that no equilibrium
Will find this coin a place
Upon the table as a sum
Of our creation's trace.

Nostalgia

Medieval girth
Once showed the worth
of women, wide wastes, hips for birth.
A healthy Venus reigned
From stone age times of ice --
In recent times we've hardly gained --
A rail-thin culture has a price,
For with our wealth
We lost our health
And sensuality has waned.
A look at poverty is what we've earned,
Starvation-sallow cheeks and skin that's burned
From working in the fields
Is what our culture yields,
And so it shields
Us from our natural tastes
For fleshy hips and waists
Like that we see
In ancient pottery,
In totems and in paintings, luxury
In overflow.
But now the women are so lean
We do no grow
In health -- instead, we grow obscene --
Aesthetic judgments turn to rust
When faced with lust
We cannot trust --
We deserve only mirth.

OR-7

Alone, yet tracked, pacifically this wolf

Has wandered through the Cascade’s mountain passes

From Oregon to California –

He hides behind the pines and in tall grasses

In mountain meadows filled with flowers, filled

With game the wolf can eat. Alone, he finds

It’s mostly rabbits, pika, squirrels that he

Can catch and eat. When full, he mostly winds

Down old elk paths. He’s looking for a pack

And cannot know he is alone, the one

Lone wolf in California – he lives

Up to the name. He basks in the warm sun

And drinks from mountain lakes whose sapphire blue

Reflects the thin-aired sky, but when the moon

Is out, his haunting howl crowds out the rounds

Of hooting owls – he hears a calling loon

Instead of what he hopes to hear – another

Gray wolf to join him on his namesake quest,

To journey on with Journey as a mate

And hope across the new Pacific West.

Leonine Wisdom

Savannahs, deserts, forests, plains --
Environments that actions make, but have no goals
Like lion prides, each ruled by shaggy manes
And seeking to bring down for lunch weak zebra foals.

The wind blows through the grass in fractal waves
The lions interrupt as they go stalk and hunt
The antelope or zebras, what each craves
In proper networks so that none will be in want.

The lion does not seek to make its pride
The model into which the vast savannah must
Conform itself, for nature has denied
It both the knowledge and unwisdom of man's trust.

The Carpenter at Little Pawpaw Lake

"When I was a little girl," my great-
Grandfather said.
We laughed.
When he was young
His mother clothed
Him in dresses,
Lace bonnets,
So he and his sister
Could look alike --
"Else what use is there in having twins?"
Strollers with two girls,
A baby in drag
At the turn of the century.
"When I was a little girl,"
My great-grandfather said.
We laughed.
"You were never
A little girl."
And a tinny yellow
Picture would appear
From a faded jewelry box --
Two toddlers,
Faces framed by frills.

Walls or Wilderness

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." -- John Lennon

You hide in shadows cast by thick brick walls
You built around your city -- urban plans
Are made to keep out all the wild life, calls
Of wolves and meadow larks silenced by bans
Enforced to keep all that is wild at bay
For fear the wilds in you will answer them.
Come into the fields and sunshine and play
With me, the wolves, the meadow larks -- the stem
Of thorns holds roses, the color and scent
Are dangerous to your fears -- let them die
And live your life dangerous and wild, spent
In beauty and love, where joy makes you cry.
When your city and wilds join up in strife,
Then maybe you can love both me and life.

Weather

Through snow and ice I drove to see
My family, friend -- for you, I drove,
And when I come to you, you flee
Into the frozen, barren grove
I find dividing you and me.

Ice glistens branches weighted down,
The gray row sparkles in the sun --
Yet, here the brightness on the crown
Of trees does not invite -- I shun
The trees draped in their virgin gown.

I'm lonely on this salted walk,
The gray of sidewalks aren't the same,
The ice on them won't make them talk
As ice on branches do. A shame
The snow here's not like Dover's chalk.

The gray road brings me back to home,
Away from where you are. I miss
Nothing about the trees, the chrome
White skies, your absence, lack of bliss
I sadly felt -- so now I roam

Among these buildings rising tall
Around these short-sleeved, lonely men --
These men the same as me, we fall
And fall, are groundless -- that is when
The snows divide us. I should call.

Unwelcome

I dwell in this house and know I should not
Live here in the dark and dust when I know
It is nothing but unhealthy. I must
Tear down these unholy walls and rip up
The floors. I must spread kerosine and light
The roof with it. Instead, my gray hairs lie
With corpses rotting in my bed, in dust
Decades old -- or, so it seems. My windows
Reflect away the sun, created as they
Are with aluminum foil. The dust
Cannot dance in the sunlight rays if I
Cannot dance within these gray, dusty walls.
The dust dries the air so much that my nose
Should bleed -- if only life ran red through me,
As it should but never really had. Tears
Vanished long ago, leaving me looking
With unblinking eyes at my reflection
In the protective aluminum foil
I do not even have the strength to tear.

The Absent One

Why keep on looking when you've found the one?
What if your love does not share in this view
And then turns out to be the one to run
Away from anything that had the hue
Of happiness or permanence? True oneness
Would frighten frigid this emotion-child,
Away from the only love who could bless
Her with the love that kept out the wild.
What happens when this love will not be yours?
Must you live life alone, in awful absence?
Must you live a sad life where no one lures
You to their heart since they would have no presence
In that one place where your true one could fit --
A tragedy your one could not commit.

Missed

I rush out of the house
Having awakened in time
To miss my breakfast
Cool air hits my face
It's nearly Fall
A few says left of Summer time
I darted down the concrete way
Dying flowers all along
Having missed them in my daily rush
I'd missed when they were beautiful
I stepped out on the blacktop road
And saw a gray and lonely car
Quickly pull around the curve
I've missed her yet again
As I've missed so many in the past
Perhaps I can catch her now
If I run along the street
And try to make myself known
Before she's completely out of sight

Living Together

She's always in the room with him, and yet
She always feels as if he is alone,
He's disconnected from her, everyone.
He only ever wanted love, a woman
For true companionship, to feel her close
Beside him, next to him, within. He feels
He must become a different one for her,
Another yet for each he knows, and so
The only man  he isn't is himself.
She will not listen. He won't speak. He thinks
His silences say everything. They would --
If only she would notice them without
His making her. She watches the T.V.
As in the other room he paints. He reads
As she plays games on the computer. They
Live in the house, together, all alone.

Castle Walls

When I became a single man, alone
Once more, I found myself cold, wondering
For hours on end if my love life was sewn
Up as a case, my desperate foundering
Could ever end. I simply had forgot
To know what must be done or where to look.
My poor experience simply could not
Envelop what has happened and what took
Down all the little confidence I'd built
Around me as a safe, stone edifice,
Meant to help me and to reduce my guilt
Not dissipated and made meaningless.
In this new life I find I must create,
There must be more love -- I must drop the gate.

Transparency

No man, emotionally, can be distant from the one he loves --
The horizon never comes near --
The porcupine mates, but is never in love --
The groundless moat, the topless wall
Are never built between friends
Or siblings --
And lovers least of all.
Hold me, cuddle, caress and snuggle
With your love, joy, the sun of your heart --
So I will know you love me
I will hold you, cuddle, caress and snuggle
With my heart and head, my eyes
So you will know I love you.
I will not hold you off -- prick me, make me bleed,
Send me running to you, afraid
I'll not be pricked again.
The bricks and mortar fill the moat --
You are the mountain faith brought near,
The faith that made me crystalline to you.

Wings

You say you love my soul -- you keep that love,
This bodiless love -- do not love me like
A brother, father, cousin, uncle, friend.
I tire of these friendships. A gray shrike
Gives mice less pain when he impales them on
The woody thorns than you do when you turn
Down my proposals and advances. Hawks
Can see less clearly than I can your stern
Core deep below your smiling ice -- you smile
At my desire and will not see the fire,
The underlying pain, the love I feel
That comes with each of my half-joking pleas.
And yet you hide your head from everything,
More ostrich than ostrich to the way
I feel -- I will not listen to excuses
About your lack of time, such words won't sway
Me to believing you. So tell me now
Instead how you must really feel for me,
And keep all other cold considerations
Aside -- just let desire be your key.

An Alphabet Poem

A is for Apple -- it tastes really good
B is for Ball -- and they bounce, as they should
C is for Cat -- they meow every day
D is for Dog -- they sit still and they stay
E is for Egg -- they're from hens, don't you know?
F is for Food -- if I eat I will grow
G is for Good -- that is how I will be
H is for Hand -- I will raise so you'll see
I is for Inch -- see how tall I have grown?
J is for Jump -- see how high I have flown!
K is for Kind -- I'll be all of the day
L is for Lunch -- here mine comes on the tray
M is for Monkey -- they play high in the tree
N is for Name -- and I have one, you see
O is for Ocean -- where the fish like to swim
P is for Playing -- with my friends, her and him
Q is for Quiet -- shh, don't make a sound
R is for Rabbit -- as they hop all around
S is for Sharing -- I share toys when I play
T is for Teacher -- and I'm learning all day
U is for Us -- we sit singing this song
V is for Van -- as it's driving along
W is for Whale -- they live deep in the sea
X is for X-Ray -- to see inside of me
Y is for Yellow -- the light color of hay
And
Z is for Zoo -- where the animals play

Your Superior Song

Great Muse of mine who sings of the love that is
Light, sun, Apollo's kiss on the cheek as you
Pluck sirens' feathers from their bodies --
Sirens whose songs cannot tempt me from you.

Plucked sirens lie around on the ground, a few
Sharp notes untie themselves from their beaks, unwind
Wild wails unbeautiful and heartless --
Others are tempted, but never me, love.

Great Anna, always sing of your love for me --
Kill sirens dead -- why pluck so they live to try
Temptations once again? You bring me
Safe to you -- sing of love, dearest Anna.

Dark sirens cannot tempt me away from you --
Great Muse, my Anna, singing your harmonies --
Light shines when you are singing, loving --
Sirens are silent around me, frightened.

Dear Anna, greatest love of all, sing with me
Great songs of love which I will refashion and
Compose for you, my constant lover --
Life without you is a songless living.

Unquenchable

I thirst for you, but when I see
You walk in through the door, I see
My thirst for you cannot be quenched.
How can my thirst ever be quenched?

When I see you all that I want
Is just to see you more. What kind
Of bright desire makes me want
To have you more and more? What kind

Of beauty . . . ? Yes! Beauty it is!
Desire drives me, for it is
Desire for beauty that grows
As thirst for it is quenched. Love grows.

Psyche

With every kiss your breath and mine combine --
With every finger-stroke I feel your soul
Intermingle and come in touch with mine --
We are two halves of a soul, now made whole.

My Aphrodite, lovely agony,
The tension and wholeness of beauty made
So everything next to you is phony
In comparison, or hidden in shade.

When you lift me, white, into heaven's light
And bring my black third under strict controls,
I can see true beauty, bright, clear, in sight
In ways I never knew, led by two foals.

You lift me to the sun, my lunar love,
And help me see the brilliance in true beauty's
White light. I feel I am now high above
Life's concerns -- loving you my only duty.

Joyful Drowning

Shall I compare you with another, dear,
As you are now to warm my heart -- no sun
Would shine on me, all rain would be my tear-
Drops flooding lakes and streams until they run

In overflowing grief. Could anyone
Bring happiness to my heart, warm my blood,
As you do every day? If I looked, none
Could step up on the shore out of the flood.

But you will always bring me joyful light,
A life of pleasure, full of love and fun.
My heart fills full of warm blood at your sight --
I marvel at the fortune I have won.

I want to drown within your sun-warmed dew --
To drown's the only way I'll live -- in you.