Stealth
You think one
thing,
Say another,
And do a third.
_____________________
The host and tenant lock
In benign equilibrium.
_____________________
Each valley followed by a slope.
Every going followed by a return.
_____________________
There is no relief without an ache,
And no virus without a host.
_____________________
Bricks tumble into the moat.
The king's body hangs naked from the flagpole.
_____________________
For a fleeting moment
The condition for change exists.
_____________________
A roiling thunderstorm clears the air
Like Wyatt Earp's peacekeeper
_____________________
A bad beginning can be overcome
But a good end lasts forever
_____________________
When you strip away the stage flats, makeup, and costumes,
It’s all one story starring our private heroes and dreams.
_____________________
Resurrection
He was ready to live again
Even if living just meant running
To keep ahead of the ghosts.
_____________________
It’s so still and calm
In the mosque,
You could hear a fly expire.
_____________________
The Marriage
Two tattered mannequins
Prop each other up
In the Salvation Army Store window
_____________________
Gone Fishing
As the forests swamps and bones turn slowly to coal
The last pterodactyl
Soars overhead, calling for a friend.
_____________________
It's so quiet you hear
dust motes six feet up
bump in shafts of sunlight.
_____________________
Take the worst that could happen
And add two zeros.
_____________________
High fidelity clouds gather over
The tattered stage flats of a world on fire.
_____________________
It's Getting Crowded
We cover the earth with Venn Diagrams
As our steps bisect old steps.
_____________________
The glass is not half-full
I saw our dreams disappear
Like a white pony
Over a low grassy hill.
_____________________
The Golden Rule
Listen to the songbirds trill
But keep an eye
On the buzzard section.
_____________________
An orchard of salt pillars
Circles Gomorrah's ashes:
Lot's Wife had no
name.
_____________________
If I don’t write it down
The words race away
Like a hit and run driver
_____________________
Your Wooden Leg
Run if you still can.
Drag that wooden leg behind you,
But keep up, jogging after your pipe-dream.
_____________________
Weather Report
Life is a raindrop
Sizzling as it skitters
Across the universal griddle.
_____________________
"And after all, what is a lie? ’Tis but the truth in
masquerade"
The truth exists; the lie must be created.
_____________________
Waiting
There is no tomorrow
until we get through
the day after yesterday
_____________________
Possibilities
In your chest beats the heart of a Good Samaritan
Who never quite got off the starting blocks
_____________________
Torches & Pitchforks
The whole
Is far less than the sum
Of its parts
_____________________
Mission Statement
The Army has two duties—
To break things, and kill people;
Everything else is just fluff and overhead.
_____________________
Dodgeball
We weave around and through
Unseen hazards and shoals,
Always feeling less safe
Than we actually are.
_____________________
The Odds
Simple probability and statistics
Tell us ineluctably that the more times
You stick your head In the lion's mouth,
The more likely it is that one day he will close it.
_____________________
The Man In The Mirror
There's a civil
war in his head:
Lobe against lobe.
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